


Disappearing Act

by NoelleLilacNotte, Yiiiiikes



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Addiction, Adopted Sibling Incest, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Codependency, Confessions, Consensual Incest, Consensual Underage Sex, Crimes, Detox, Detoxing, Dirty Talk, Drug Addiction, Drug Use, Drunk Sex, F/M, First Kiss, Five gets the love he deserves, Five’s disappearance, Flashback Chapters, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Smut, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Klaus and Five’s tumultuous bromance, Klaus being an enabler, Love Confessions, Mild breeding kink, No Beta, No Refractory Period, Number Five | The Boy Being an Asshole, PTSD, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Pseudo-Incest, Reader is Number Eight, Recreational Drug Use, Reginald Hargreeves sucks, Reginald Hargreeves’s A+ Parenting, Reunion Sex, Secret Relationships, Separation Anxiety, Sibling Incest, Time Travel Shenanigans, Underage Drinking, Underage Smoking, Unsafe Sex, We Die Like Men, but a loveable asshole, dependency disorders, gratuitous overuse of the word fuck, inappropriate quoting of a romance novel that isn’t romance, its five what did you expect, look it’s two Hargreeves kids read it as you will, luther apologism, mild possessive behavior, more like plot with a dash of porn, protective five, withdrawl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:35:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 12
Words: 30,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26042812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoelleLilacNotte/pseuds/NoelleLilacNotte, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yiiiiikes/pseuds/Yiiiiikes
Summary: Falling in love with one’s sibling, adopted or not, is always a difficult endeavor to navigate.It’s even more difficult when said sibling vanishes for 16 years, only to end up falling out of the sky during your father’s funeral.
Relationships: Klaus Hargreeves/Reader, Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy)/Reader
Comments: 70
Kudos: 443





	1. February 18th 2002

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being 12 is hard. Being 12 and getting brutally abused—I mean trained by your father is even harder, but donuts make everything better.

The worst thing about being a Hargreeves wasn't the greuling training, or the high expectations, or even the life threatening missions your father would throw you into on a whim. It was the aftermath. It was the constant struggle to convince your dear old dad that you deserved his love.

You knew at a very young age that you would not be the recipient of whatever it may be that Reginald Hargreeves would consider to be love. So you turned elsewhere, instead seeking approval and affection from one of your brothers.

Five.

When you were twelve years old, your father subjected you to some of the most brutal training you would receive in your entire life. Training that left you with your ribs and your spirit crushed.

You hadn’t even made a very big mistake, but the tiniest little hiccup in your routine left you battered, blushing in humiliation from the concerned stares of your siblings as your mom offered you some over-the-counter pain pill.

It was fitting, you thought, that a soulless droid who dressed like a cartoon character showed you more love and affection than your living, breathing, flesh-and-blood father.

Your brother on the other hand, he was an enigma. He wasn’t as _outwardly_ affectionate as your mother, but he cared about you. More than your father. More than the others. Even if he was unpracticed in medicine, and his powers had absolutely nothing to do with healing, you noticed that wounds he helped bandage up always seemed to stop hurting faster.

He talked through his equations to you. He trusted you with that part of his training, even if he knew you couldn’t even begin to comprehend the mathematics behind it. 

He scolded you once, when you’d forgotten some of the buttons on your pajama shirt. He did them up for you hastily, and coming from anyone else his comments would have hurt. 

“Don’t let dad see you like that, ok?”

He looked out for you.

Sometimes at night he read you stories, books he’d stolen from your father’s personal library, always the ones Reginald had insisted were too mature for you. Five always insisted that you read the villain’s lines, and he’d chuckle under his breath when you gave them silly voices.

You liked his laugh. It was a lot nicer to see than the agitated, concerned face he had now, as he sat next to your bed with his hands clasped in front of him.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be crying over this." you whispered, shifting the bag of ice you had pressed against your chest. 

"Don't. You have every right to be upset." His hand naturally drifts to yours and your fingers interlock. He doesn't look up at you; he's staring at the deep purple bruises on your knees, illuminated by moonlight peeking through your open window.

You squeeze his hand and finally he looks up. 

"I hate him." Five says, with chilling resolve. "I hate dad."

You rub circles on the back of his hand with your thumb.

"Me too." You whispered.

He looked at you, and although you were only twelve years old, you feel like you've known him for a thousand. You knew how angry he was, and how hard he tried to take care of you. And in turn, you knew exactly how to calm him down.

"Hey," you whispered, drawing your free hand up to his face so you could run your thumb along the outline of his jaw. "I'm hungry. I would totally kill someone for a donut right now. Pretty please can we go somewhere and get one?"

A small smile crept up his face, a mischievous and boyish glee following it into his eyes. Your thumb ran over the dimple on his cheek. His hand came up up you grasp yours again, and as he looked around, making sure nobody was watching, you tightened your grip.

“Yeah, yeah we can do that. In fact, I know just the place. Get your shoes, but keep quiet. I’ll watch the door.”

You stood up from your bed quietly, mentally thanking your past self for wearing fuzzy socks to bed. Your uniform shoes didn’t exactly make your pajamas less suspicious, but Five didn’t seem to care, so you didn’t either. With your laces tied, you took his hand and closed your eyes, waiting for the surge of energy to rush over the pair of you.

The blue light dimmed, the electric humming stopped, and you opened your eyes to...somewhere?

“An alley?”

“Well...yeah, but it’s not the alley that’s important, it’s the building. Now see, we can’t exactly afford all the donuts we want, right?”

“I guess not...”

“ _But_.” He said, shoving one hand in his pocket and using his other to gesture at you. “We do have other means of getting what we want.”

“Oh?”

“We’ll go around front, you distract the cashier, and I’ll zap in behind the counter and grab as many as I can.”

"You know, I think we're supposed to be the ones _stopping_ crimes, not committing them." You teased. Five gave you a smile, a real one, a special one that only you were allowed to see. 

"I'm sorry are you trying to compare us saving the Eiffel tower from destruction to us stealing a couple dozen donuts?" He teased you right back, but unlike the teasing that your other siblings usually reiceve from him, the love in the statement was palpable.

"Okay, okay. Promise to get me one with colored frosting?" You held your pinkie up between the two of you. On more than one occasion your father (and subsequently your siblings) would call this habit childish. You admitted, you were a little too old to still be making pinkie promises, but Five, every single time, would wrap his pinkie around yours and make a promise.

"I promise I'll get you as many donuts with colored frosting as I can carry. Now get in there and start distracting!" 

You did your best to speed into the shop in spite of your aching limbs and labored breathing.

The blonde, pink-clad woman behind the register seemed alarmed when you opened the glass door. You couldn’t blame her, how was she supposed to react to a lone child in pajamas and loafers showing up in the middle of the night?

“Oh, uh, hello there little girl! Are you lost?”

You took a subtle breath in and put on a sweet look that probably made you seem four years younger. At least you could finally put all the manipulation tricks you’d picked up from your dad to good use for once. 

“No ma’am, my daddy is down the block at the gas station. He said I should come in here for a few minutes to get out of the cold while he’s gettin’ gas.”

“Oh, well, I’m not exactly a nanny, but I suppose it won’t do too much harm. Can’t just leave you on the curb, now can I?”

“Thank you, ma’am!” You said, flashing her your most innocent smile. 

You also made sure to thank her loudly enough to mask the sound of Five zapping in and out of the back room. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to notice the noise. Or the noise from the second and third round trip he made.

You felt a little bad stealing from her, she was pretty sweet. Of course that didn't stop you from rushing out the door the moment Five gave you a signal.

Five had amassed a comically large amount of donuts, all of them sitting on a bedsheet he most have returned to the academy for. 

"Jesus Five, are we feeding everyone in town?" You knew damn well that there was no way the two of you could possibly eat all of the food he had collected. Knowing your brother (your best friend, your heart), he was just showing off again. 

Five grinned, took your hand and ran, makeshift donut bag in tow, and you scrambled to your feet and ran with him. A few blocks away you came across a park, all lush grass and trees, moonlight glinting off the condensation on the leaves. The pair of you collapsed onto a bench with your haul beside you, and you laughed.

Five smiled at you, that sweet little quirk of his lips that tells you he knows you're impressed.

That wasn't the first time you had thought to yourself that you loved him. Far from it actually, you had picked up your mother's adoring ~~programming~~ nature, unafraid (at least, with Five) to show affection. It was not the first time that you thought to yourself that you loved him.

But it was the first time you said it out loud.

"I love you, Five." You spoke with conviction you didn't know you were capable of. Your voice did not quiver or falter, even for a second. You told Five you loved him and you sounded like that was the answer to every question in the world.

Five’s smile dropped. He sucked a breath through his teeth and broke eye contact. He swallowed hard, audibly, and looked, for just a moment, like he didn’t know what to do.

He didn’t let go of your hand. 

“...you’re injured. And tired. You’re...you’re not thinking straight.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

Five paused, eyebrows scrunching up like they did whenever he wasn’t quite sure what the answer to an equation was.

You stayed silent. You held his hand and let him take his time thinking through whatever was going through his mind.

His breath started shaking.

You braced yourself for his anger.

But he leaned over and kissed you.

It was clumsy and quick, but it was every bit as certain as your declaration of love.

For a moment you both sat next each other, close enough to feel each other breathing. Your eyes remained closed, like if you were to open them Five might just disappear into thin air. But he didn't. 

Five stayed close to you, "Close enough to be vulnerable to an attack", in your father's words. “Close enough to kiss again” in yours.

But you didn't kiss him. You stuck your hand in your pajama pockets and pulled out an instant camera.

"I found this in Klaus's room. I don't wanna know what he's been doing with it but... I thought maybe we could take a picture together? The only picture in the world with both of us in it is that stupid painting of all of us together. I think we should take one of just us." You said, handing the cheap plastic Kodak over to your brother.

The orange-yellow flash of the camera stung your eyes as Five took the picture. Soft mechanical whirring harmonized with the cicadas in the trees as the little machine printed out a grainy photo of you both.

Five handed it to you, and the thought passed over you briefly of how special of a picture it must be, being the only one you’d ever taken where the both of you were smiling. 

You pinched the paper on either side of the space between you and tore the little picture in half. The half with Five’s face, you held to your heart, and the half with yours, you pressed back into his hand.

“You keep that. It’s important.”

“Whatever you say.”

“I’m serious! Don’t lose it, promise me that, ok?”

“Ok. I won’t lose it, I promise.”

“You’ll keep it, always?”

Five carefully tucked his half of the picture into his pocket, squeezing your hand as he did.

“Always and forever.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Five, addressing his siblings: Listen up assholes!
> 
> Five: No, not you Reader, you’re a treasure and I’m glad you’re here.


	2. Both Kinds Of Spirits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s always hard to cope with loss. Some people just deal with it a little more destructively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The other Hargreeves siblings get some screentime.

16 years, 4 months, and 2 weeks, and you still missed Five, just like you did every night since he disappeared. 

16 years, 4 months, 1 week, and 3 days since Grace had convinced you to start eating again.

15 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days since you stopped crying yourself to sleep every night.

Coincidentally, it had also been 15 years, 3 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days since you’d started smoking with Klaus.

You lost track of when you’d started doing much harder things with him too.

Losing Five had broken you. Your father’s harsh attitude towards your reaction had done more harm than good. Your other siblings had tried to help, but they weren’t _him_ , so it just wasn’t enough.

As much as most of them hated to admit, you ending up following Klaus’s footsteps made just a little too much sense.

You were painfully codependent, your father told you that nearly every day. When you had Five, you had something to keep you steady, to keep your feet on the ground. When he was no longer there to hold on to, you turned to Klaus. 

You spent most nights in his bedroom with the windows open, smoking cheap cigarettes and praying you wouldn't get caught. More often than not Ben was there too, he kept Klaus in check, making sure he didn't get too loud trying to tell you a story, and reminding you both to not burn yourselves on the hot lighter.

It was nearly nice. If you closed your eyes and pretended that you weren't absolutely miserable, hanging out with your brothers at night was... Fun.

But as you would learn growing up: The Hargreeves don't get to be happy.

When Ben died, so did any sense of peace your nightly cigarettes brought you.

You had lost so much by just 14 years old, how could you ever heal from all of that?

Even though smoking brought you no comfort you continued to do it. And even though you knew you shouldn't, you followed Klaus down a rabbit hole.

And now, you're stuck in the dirt. 

It's spring. Klaus had just been picked up by an ambulance, and you have decided to take just one more pill before you go make sure he's not dead. And all across the country, news of your father's death has just been released.

The high from the little tablet was just starting to kick in when a paramedic, a face you recognized but couldn’t place a name to, shocked your brother’s body out of the tail end of an overdose. When the news finally reached your ears, the rush of buzzing, colorful chemicals had taken over your brain entirely. 

You couldn’t help yourself. You laughed.

Klaus wrapped an arm over your shoulder, dilated pupils barely making contact with yours.

“Ok, don’t hate me for killing the vibe, but Casper the hentai ghost is demanding I ask you what’s so funny.”

“It’s just...so silly!” You barked through your drug-induced laughter. “Dad always said we were gonna die early from this stuff, but...look at us! Partying like always, and he’s just...a corpse!”

Klaus snorted, and fell into a giggle fit rivaling your own. 

“That’s fuckin’ right!”

Your giggles quickly dissolved into tears before turning right back into uproarious laughter. This cycle continued long after you and your brother were shooed away from the ambulance and left stumbling your way back to the apartment you'd been crashing in.

It had been quite a while since you'd started sleeping there, at this point you were pretty sure you and Klaus just owned the place, if not legally then in spirit. Haha, spirit. That's what Ben is! You're feeling awfully silly tonight.

You stood on the stoop of your apartment, watching Klaus attempt to fit the key into the doorknob. Your mind begins to fade out, thoughts and feelings all falling to the wayside as you stumbled to sit down on the steps, tripping over yourself and landing on your back on the sidewalk.

The last thing you recalled seeing before blacking out was the moon, beautiful and pale and lonely all the way up there in the sky. It reminded you of Five.

When you woke up, you were moving. Maybe you were walking? Or maybe you were in a car, you couldn’t tell. Whatever it was, it was rapidly bringing you closer to a _very_ recognizable building.

“Hey, Klaus?”

“Yeah, Sis?”

“What the fuck are we doing here?”

“Uh...I’m going to dad’s house, and finding something expensive to sell, and I think you’re following me!”

“Oh shit, have I been stalking you? I’m so sorry, I don’t even remember getting here!”

“Hey, hey, do you wanna know a secret?”

“Fuck yeah.”

“I don’t remember either!”

You both stumbled through the doors, laughing with every step. Or at least you were laughing, until you misjudged your step and crashed headfirst into Luther’s back. At least, you think he’s Luther? You don’t remember having any other blonde beefcake brothers, but who knows for sure?

Luther or not, he certainly didn’t seem too happy to see you, or Klaus for that matter.

"Great. Welcome home you two, glad to see you're handling this well." He huffed. 

"Glad to see you're as sweet as ever dear brother!" Klaus chimed. You looked up at Luther, still not _quite_ sure this is actually your brother. It had been a pretty long time since you'd seen him but...you swore he was smaller the last time you spoke. 

You weren't in the right headspace to solve that mystery quite yet. You wandered away from the brother you hadn't seen since you were at least nineteen, letting him distract himself with Klaus, and didn’t bother saying hello to him, or acknowledging the death of your father.

Instead you made your way through the house, getting lost in rooms you don't quite remember being there and halls that don't look the same as they did in the nightmares you had about going back home.

You caught the tail end of a conversation between Diego and Vanya. Well, it was hard to call it a conversation, it was really just Diego being bitter about Vanya's book. Not that he didn't have a right to be, you were still a little pissed about it yourself. You spent nearly a year forcing yourself to read a book for the first time since childhood only to find that it was your sister mercilessly dunking on you and your other siblings.

She had described you as a ghost. In spite of Five's disappearance and Ben's death, it was _you_ who haunted to halls of the academy. Too consumed by your own misery to pay any attention to your family. She had written one particularly painful anecdote, detailing the meltdowns you had in the days following Five's vanishing act. You didn't mind her talking about it, you didn't mind her telling people that you threw yourself against your bedroom door and bruised yourself until you sobbed, only ceasing when your father commanded you to. 

The part that bothered you was that she was being completely honest. Vanya always hid behind a thin layer of small lies, a million little “ _I'm fine_ "'s and averted eye contact. But you could feel through the ink, this was how she truly saw you, and was more or less the truth.

You were a phantom in your own home.

When Vanya turned the corner and make eye contact with you, you suddenly felt like your limbs were made of stone. You leaned against the wall, doing your damnedest to wave at her.

"Hey, Vanya." You said. 

"Hey." She refused to look you in the eyes when she responded. You couldn't blame her.

The last time you’d seen her, you’d been high as a kite on something or other, just about to take Klaus’s terrible advice and end up speeding away with him and a few duffle bags in a stolen car. 

You can’t imagine that was a very good way to be remembered, especially considering how much you’d (apparently) hurt her in the past. 

The thought came to you to apologize, but some mix of the drugs and the guilt prevented you from speaking. Instead, you just grabbed hold of her sleeve, and tugged her deeper into the manor. 

You found the rest of your family waiting in the sitting room, gaudy and painful to look at, just like always. 

Luther seemed even more angry than before, if that were even possible. Diego was twitchy, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but where he was. Allison was poised as always, but a little more sad than you remembered her being. Klaus was...well, Klaus. He’d apparently gotten his hands on a skirt at some point.

The other two faces in the room you weren’t exactly expecting. 

Pogo and your mother stood in the room, and they looked at you like they’d been waiting for you. For a second, you almost felt like you were wanted in the house.

"Wouldn you look at that!" You said. "The gangs all back together again, talk about a throwback... I need to sit down." You didn't manage to make it onto the couch, but you decided that you could live with just sitting on the floor next to it, so you did.

When no one responded to you, you kept talking.

"Fuck, man, this is the shittiest funeral I've ever been to. At least the last one I went to served lunch afterwards." 

Someone speaks but you're pretty sure they're not responding to you. You're not surprised. You closed your eyes and watched for stars, only tuning back in to the conversation when someone raised their voice.

“It’s not a funeral yet.” Luther said, interrupting your train of thought.

“Yeah it is.” Diego countered, antagonistic and emotional as always. It was good to see at least that hadn’t changed. “Dad’s dead, and we’re all sitting around making awkward small talk while you pretend to be in charge. That sounds pretty damn close to a funeral if you ask me.”

“No, that’s not—you know what? We’re not doing this today. Let’s just...go spread the ashes and get this over with.”

You and the rest of your siblings halfheartedly agreed, shuffling into the courtyard with a heavy silence hanging overhead.

The first thing that struck your thoughts when you arrived in the courtyard was how sad it was that you’d grown older than the visage of Ben’s statue.

The second thing was that you’d never seen your mother wearing black before.

With those two revelations stewing in your mind, coupled with the fact that you could feel the remnants of your buzz fading, you were suddenly very aware of just how sad the whole thing really made you.

Klaus noticed. For the amount of time he spent with his head in the clouds, he was remarkably good at knowing when you were especially upset. You pressed yourself close to him, hugging his arm and hiding under his silly pink umbrella. He leaned his head on yours for a second, then went back to his usual posture.

“Would anyone like to speak?” Asked Pogo.

Silence.

You kick at the damp grass in front of you. You certainly had a lot to say about your father, but none of it was exactly funeral appropriate. Diego must not have gotten the memo, jumping in with his own less than kind words.

"He was a monster." 

Klaus chuckled beside you, and you couldn't tell if it was because he found that funny or if he was nervous. You looked down at the pile of ashes that used to be your father and wondered when that happened. You didn't recall watching Luther pour the sad lump of grey dust onto the dirt but you also didn't quite recall arriving back at your childhood home in the first place. 

You were quite convinced that you're dreaming, that any second now you're going to wake up in a cold sweat, lying on the floor because Klaus kicked you off the bed again. 

You'd lost track of whatever it was that your family was fighting about this time, it doesn't matter anyways. Your father was dead, your siblings all hated each other, and you needed a cigarette.

You snapped back to reality in time to see Luther throw the first punch at Diego, who swiftly dodged it.

"What the fuck did I miss just now?" You muttered to Klaus. 

No one interfered with Luther and Diego's brawl, though Pogo did shout at them to stop. Oh if only your father could see you all now. It brought you a bitter sense of satisfaction to see that your fathers life's work (you and your shitshow of a family) was completely useless. 

The six of you couldn't even get through a funeral without starting a fight.

Your mind lagged again, and in slow motion you watched the statue of your deceased brother topple to the ground, head snapping off upon impact.

That was it. The final straw. Suddenly everyone around you was angry, half of them shouting and the other half screaming, and you were shocked back to your miserable, headache-riddled, _sober_ existence. 

The dam broke, and you started crying. For as disgusting as it felt letting out the ugly, messy, snotty sobs, it did feel a little bit better than trying to hold it all in. You were never very good at that. Repression was always Vanya’s thing. 

On the bright side, the sound of you choking on your own tears managed to get Luther and Diego to stop hitting each other. 

Diego walked off in a huff, kicking the perfectly manicured grass as he went. Luther went the other direction, squeezing your shoulder and mumbling out a “sorry” as he passed. Allison chased after him, and Vanya apathetically stalked back inside. Your mother stood still as a statue next to Pogo, who just looked disappointed.

Klaus offered you a drag of his cigarette, one that you readily accepted.

"What a fucking disaster." You said. Klaus plucked the cigarette butt from your hand and crouched down to drop it in the ashes. 

"Good riddance!" He cheered. "Let's get the fuck out of here!" 

When he turned to head back inside, you separated from him, heading over to the decapitated statue of Ben. You thought to yourself that you were more upset about this statue falling than your father dying, and you couldn't quite determine whether that was a funny thought or a sad one. You picked up the metal head and placed it back on the statues pedestal, attempting to return at least a little bit of dignity to this absolute nightmare. You patted the statue on the head and made your way back inside.

The storm that had been brewing during the memorial service (if you could really call it that) doubled in power in a heartbeat, and flashes of a very familiar blue tinted light made your heart race. You didn't remember calling for your family but in a heartbeat, there they were, witnessing the same strange ripples in the air above the courtyard.

Amid the panic and screaming, all of your siblings getting ready to fight whatever unseen enemy was about to come through the light, you found yourself _smiling_.

For just a moment, for the first time since Ben had died, you let yourself hope, and when Five dropped out of the sky, exactly the same as the way you remembered him, save for a new outfit, you silently thanked your dad for dying when he did.

Your missing piece was back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luther: I am my own self control.
> 
> Reader: You have your own self control? Five is my self control!
> 
> Klaus: Your self control is alive? The ghost of Ben is my self control!
> 
> Diego: You guys have self control?!


	3. July 6th 2002

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After about a year of dancing around everything, Five thinks you both deserve some time off. Alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen y’all, you don’t have to read this chapter for the plot to land, but if you’re here for Five’s dick, this is where you’ll find it.

"You're absolutely certain no one will catch us?" You tugged at the ends of your braids. This morning they were neat, perfectly symmetrical, thanks to Five's steady hands and perfectionist nature. But now, after a whole day of training and anxious tugging, most of your hair had escaped the braids, leaving you looking disheveled and unprepared. 

You didn't care much about how you looked right now, after all, Five had seen you in much worse condition, but you did care about the possibility of anyone else spotting you. Sneaking into the attic late at night with your brother was already a pretty incriminating look, even more so with your hair a mess.

"I'd say I'm about ninety percent sure we won't get caught." Five whispered, guiding you through the dark. 

"That's not funny!" You responded, but Five just smiled and kept walking. When you saw the dim light of a flashlight covered by sheets, Five finally stopped walking. "Here?" You asked.

"Not quite." He dug the light out from underneath the layers of cloth and pointed it towards what looked like a tent made of sheets and blankets. "There." He confirmed.

You took it upon yourself to enter the tent first, crawling as far back as you could so that Five could comfortably make his way in with you.

You sat down, and all of a sudden the little tent seemed a hundred times bigger. Five followed you, closing the makeshift door flap behind him. You let your eyes adjust to the light, and once you could see, you took in your surroundings, committing them to memory as best you could. 

The flashlight glowed with a yellowish light. There was a blanket below you, protecting you from the cold wooden floor below. There was a small pile of books in the corner, titles you recognized as ones Five had read with you before. Five was lying on his side next to you, a proud, expectant grin on his face. 

“Wow...this is awesome!” You whispered, doing your best to keep yourself quiet.

“I know. It took me nearly a dozen tries to get this stuff up here, do you know how hard it is trying to steal bedding, especially from _our_ father?”

“I can’t imagine...it’s wonderful, Five. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome! You know, it’s about time you and I get some goddamn appreciation in this house, wouldn’t you say? After everything we do for this family, I say we’ve earned this.”

“Earned...what exactly?”

“This.” Five said, gesturing to the comfortable setting and books around you. “A night off. Some peace and quiet for once. Some time to breathe, you know?”

You sighed, recalling the training you’d been through earlier in the week. 

“I _do_ know.”

“There, see? We deserve this. Somewhere safe, and comfortable, with just us.”

“Just us?”

Five looked at you for a moment, scanning your face like he was gauging a reaction.

“Yeah. Just us.”

You would never dare to touch him in front of your siblings, and God forbid your father. But sitting there in the dark, it seemed like you were the last two people on Earth. So it was only natural that you drifted towards one another.

Your fingers interlocked with his, and you pressed your foreheads together, relishing in the feeling of his skin against yours. Five's free hand trailed up your side, his fingers just barely ghosting across you, leaving goosebumps beneath your pajamas, which suddenly felt all sorts of stifling.

You leaned forward and kissed him. You didn't break away hastily like you usually did. This time you lingered, focusing on the feeling of Five pressing his palm to your ribs, holding you in place. 

You'd discussed late at night, what it would be like to touch one another like lovers, but you had never planned on following through with any of the fantasies you'd shared.

But under the cover of night, with your hand in his, you decided you would.

Five seemed to share this sentiment, the hand on your ribs slowly tracing down your stomach and under your shirt. He was testing the waters, giving you every opportunity to push him away. You mimicked his motions, letting your hand find its way to his shirt and popping the bottom button open.

Five smirked against your lips, unlatching your fingers and taking the opportunity to undo the buttons on the top of your pajama shirt. He sucked in a breath when his fingers met bare skin underneath. 

He broke the kiss, turning his head to give you a quick peck on the cheek, and pressing his lips to your neck. You whimpered, shaky hands grasping at the bottom of his half-undone top.

He shuddered at the noise, quietly shushing you with his mouth still attached to your throat. You leaned in closer, trying to get as much contact as possible, but froze when you felt something hard and warm press up against your leg.

 _Oh_.

Five went still along with you, halfway through unbuttoning your shirt. For a second your mind dulled, you couldn't process anything but the feeling of your bodies pressed together, breathing labored and eyes half closed.

You pressed yourself against Five, grinding against him. The half sigh half moan he let out made you feel like your whole body was on fire. You had to get out of these clothes before you started really burning up.

Your hands shook as you undid the buttons of Five's shirt. His did too but neither of you mentioned it. 

With the final button undone, you slowly retracted your hands, dragging them down his chest and lap before taking ahold of your own shirt and peeling it off. 

It was hard to see in the dark, but when you focused you could make out all the little details of Five's expression. You were so enamored with him that you nearly forgot to be embarrassed that he was blatantly staring at your bare chest.

His hands shot up to your face, and he pulled you in for another kiss, this one darker, heavier. He pulled you into an upright position, holding you in his lap with gravity forcing you to grind down on him just a little harder. 

One of Five’s hands slid down to your chest, less deliberate that you expected from him. The other rested firmly on your waist, keeping your body pressed against his. His lips left yours, and when he rested his chin on your shoulder, you could feel his breathing, hot and wet, on your neck.

“I have a confession to make. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen you like this.”

“What?”

“Last week, I zapped into your room looking for you. I didn’t know you were in the shower at the time, but _fuck_ , I do not regret what I saw.”

"You pervert!" You hissed, but there was no real anger behind it. "You have to make it up to me now you know."

"Oh yeah?" Five teased. You could feel that stupid gorgeous smirk on his face, both physically and in spirit. Despite that, beehind the lust you knew he was nearly as flustered as you. It would only be fair for you to level the playing field a bit.

You took the hesitant hand Five had pressed against your chest and lowered it, slowly and deliberately to cup your breast. You exaggerated a pleased sigh, making sure to keep your face out of his line of sight lest he see how embarrassingly eager you were to receive his affection.

Your boldness startled Five, but only for a moment. Before you even had a chance to catch your breath he was laying messy kisses up and down your neck and freely toying with your breasts. 

You shuddered at the feeling of his hands on you, and gasped at the feeling of him grinding into you, making you aware of just how sticky your pajama bottoms had become.

Your hand slid under the waistband of Five’s pajama pants, feeling the wetness on his underwear where the head of his dick was. Hastily, you pulled his briefs down, reveling in the moan Five failed to push down. 

One of Five’s hands remained on your chest, the other slipping past your underwear. He sucked a spot low on your neck, located where the collar of your uniform would hide the mark. The tip of his thumb grazed over your clit, tentatively, but deliberate. 

You whined, cutting yourself off halfway through in an effort to keep quiet. The low, grumbled laugh he let out sent vibrations through your neck and right to your core. 

“Five, that’s not fair...”

“That’s where you’re wrong, dear sister, turnabout is _always_ fair play.”

"Fine. If you wanna play dirty," you took him in your hand, the sharp gasp he let out made your insides melt. He tentatively placed his hand over top of yours, guiding you into a slow rhythmic movement. 

The feeling of having him in your hand like this was intoxicating. You were the only person in the world who could make Five Hargreeves moan and you were going to abuse that privilege as long as you could.

But he caught you off guard again, sliding his fingers across your folds. The feeling of it made you shiver, which in turn resulted in you humping Five's hand. You felt his muscles tense beneath you, and then he was brushing against your clit again, making you groan and arch your back.

" _Five, please._ " You whispered, not sure what exactly you were begging for.

Five took hold of your leg and tugged, sending you backwards onto the (thankfully, blanket-covered) floor. While you were distracted with the shock, he took it upon himself to yank your pajama pants and underwear down all at once.

You _really_ liked the excited, manic look that spread over his face when he looked down at your now-naked form.

He didn’t bother taking his own pants off, just tugged his length free of its confines and using his arms to pin you to the floor.

“Oh _fuck_ , this is already better than I thought...SHIT!”

Five’s sudden, hushed outburst startled you, and you wrapped your fingers around his upper arms, still holding you down.

“Five?”

“I uh...fuck, I can’t believe I lacked the foresight to get one...”

“What’s going on?”

“I... _may_ have forgotten to pocket a box of condoms the last time we were in town.”

"And you didn't realize that until after you got me naked!" You groaned, covering your face with your hands. Five began to sit up but without even thinking you wrapped your legs around him and pulled him back down onto you. 

The feeling of him so close to entering you and yet so, unbearably far from it was maddening. Perhaps if you were a little older and wiser, or at least not in the midst of puberty, you might have made the wise decision to only do hand and mouth stuff.

But you were thirteen, and stupid, and crazy, and so utterly in love that nothing else in the world mattered but what you were feeling in that moment.

"Do it anyways." You commanded. Before Five could respond you spoke up again. "Please, Five, next time we'll be safe but I need you _right now_ , okay?" You pleaded.

Five swallowed hard, but didn’t protest. He leaned down and kissed you, pushing you into the blanket beneath you. 

He pulled away from you after a moment, one hand wrapped around his length, the other going straight to your inner thigh, using your body to line himself up. 

“Last chance to back out. Any second thoughts?”

“God, no.”

With that, Five kissed you again, the comforting warmth of his lips on yours distracting you from the slight burn of him entering you. 

You whined into his mouth, and he kissed harder. He squeezed your hips, the same way he squeezed your hand under the dinner table when he was sure nobody could see. You relaxed, adjusting to the feeling of Five inside you, while he shivered above you, clearly trying to keep himself under control. 

“Fuck, I think I love you.”

“That joke doesn’t really work when we’re in the middle of sex.”

“Well good, cuz it’s not a joke.”

You reached up and brushed his hair out of his eyes- a fruitless endeavor, but one you engaged in nonetheless. You traced the lines of his jaw, his cheekbones, his nose, his lips, like you were making a map of exactly what he looked like in this moment.

"I love you too." You said.

"Does it hurt?" Five asked, remaining unbearably still inside of you.

"A little. Not really. Please keep going."

As Five slowly ( _so, unbearably slowly_ ) filled you, he leaned down to kiss you again. With him inside you and on top of you it's nearly impossible to think of anything else but him, not that you'd want to. You kept your eyes open, doing your best to commit the experience to memory.

He looked so beautiful when he was all the way inside you.

Eyes squeezed shut, biting his lip to hold himself back from moaning too loud, face flushed red and shiny with sweat. 

One short, shallow thrust from him and you gasped, feeling like your nerve endings were on fire. He let out a quiet noise, and you could feel him twitch inside you. 

Five opened his mouth like he was going to talk, then snapped his jaw shut and jerked his hips up into you twice.

“Ouch, Five, too fast!”

“Sorry, sorry, fuck, I didn’t mean to...”

“Just...give me a second.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you want, just... _shit_ this is good.”

You did your best to steady your breathing, to calm down and not focus on the feeling of your body naturally drawing him in. When you were ready for him to continue you didn't bother with words, instead you just pulled him closer with your legs, still wrapped around his waist.

"Fuck!" You whined, your grip on his arms tightened, and if you weren't so delirious you would have worried about bruising him.

Five reached down to touch your clit again, finally giving it more than a few feather light strokes. The pleasure made your whole body tense up, it felt like you'd been struck by lightning. He moaned, quick to stifle the sound by burying his face in your neck.

“How’s... _oh fuck_ , how’re you feeling?”

You just moaned, unable to form words with your mind so clouded.

“God...fuck everything else, fuck the academy, I don’t ever want anything but this.”

“Me too Five, fuck, keep going...”

“Nothing could get me to stop, darlin’. Fuck, I can’t believe you let me go through with this...”

Five punctuated his sentence with a particularly aggressive thrust and another harsh kiss to the neck that was absolutely going to bruise. 

“I mean shit, this is...this is _dangerous_!” Barked Five, a twinge of mania creeping into his voice. “Fuck, if we’re not careful, I’ll end up getting you knocked up!”

You blushed harder, if that was even possible. A renewed gush of liquid arousel flooded your body, and of course your hyper-aware brother (lover?) noticed immediately.

“Holy shit, _that_ got a reaction! Is that what you want? You want me to put a baby in you?”

"Fiiiiive! Don't say things like that!" You whined, but Five denied you any mercy.

"Say it, say- _fuck_ , say you want me to get you pregnant." His commanding tone made you shiver. 

"I want... _oh_ , Five!" You felt like your insides were made of lava, heat dripping out of you with every miniscule movement.

"Say it. Tell me what you want!" Five urged, his pace increasing as his hands wandered around your body, never stopping in the same place twice.

“I-I...”

“Say it, I know what you what, and you do too, just open that pretty mouth of yours and—“

Five slammed into you, hard, and if you weren’t so lost in the haze of hormones and sex, you would have worried about the thump it made. 

“— _fucking. Say it._ ” 

He nearly growled those last words, right next to your ear. 

“Five...I...I want you to make me pregnant!”

“Good girl.”

Five’s pace sped up, thrusts becoming uncoordinated and uncharacteristically sloppy. His breath shortened with every second, ragged noises slipping from his throat as sweat dripped off of his forehead. 

“God, fuck, I’m close..”

You couldn't manage to form words, too focused on the feeling of your insides coiling and tightening in the most incredible way. You tried to warn Five of your rapidly approaching climax, but with your brain short circuiting all you managed was a sharp gasp and your nails digging into his arms.

Your legs shook so hard you could no longer keep them wrapped around Five, instead they simply fell open, twitching uncontrollably as you climaxed.

"Fuck!" Five grabbed at your hips, pulling your quaking body against his.

He nipped at your collar bone, the sensation rendering you utterly destroyed, your orgasm making your whole body seize up, and then finally relax in Five's grip.

One final snap of his hips and Five spilled himself inside you. The nip on your neck burned, and you realized Five had his teeth clamped down on the space where your throat met your shoulder. 

After a moment of stillness, he pulled away, slowly, but not before pressing his lips to the wound he’d left to gently kiss the break in your skin.

You laughed, a soft, shaky, breathless laugh, and when Five looked up at you, all lovesick mania and slightly bloody teeth, you laughed again. He smiled at you, softly pulling you to sit up with him.

You kissed him, chastely, and nodded at your pajama top, discarded on the other side of the tent. Five got the message, and gingerly wrapped the thing around your shoulders, not bothering with the sleeves.

“You feel ok?”

"I feel...amazing, Five." You said, and it was true. "Addendum, I also feel like I got hit by a bus. In a good way though. What about you?"

"What about me?" Five asked.

"Do you feel okay?" You replied, reaching up to brush his messy hair away from his eyes, only for it to fall right back into place. He was gorgeous like this, sweaty and flushed and completely and utterly _yours_.

He laid down next to you, adjusted his pajama pants, and pulled one of the floor blankets over the pair of you, leaving your faces exposed. Gently, he guided you to turn over, letting you curl up with his arms around your waist, legs entwined with his, and his dimpled cheek pressed against the back of your neck. He smelled like soap, and sweat, and the dust from the oldest books in the library.

“I’ve never felt better.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luther brought ROPE to the secret fort with Allison, incest and kinkiness runs in the family here.


	4. Reunited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunited and it feels...really confusing to be completely honest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t @ us about canon divergence in terms of when things happen. You throw a whole new Hargreeves sibling into the mix and the timeline’s bound to get a little fucked.

The air around you was still, as if the whole world was holding it's breath, waiting for you to move. 

"Does anybody else see little Number Five, or is that just me?" Klaus asked, and suddenly the planet was in motion again. The rest of your siblings moved forwards as a unit (incredible, even after so many years apart you all still stepped in time with one another) but you were rooted in place.

Could it really be him? After all this time, he was back. Five looked down at himself, then back up at his family.

"Shit." He muttered. You'd never heard a word so stupid sound so damn good. Hearing his voice again freed you from the disbelieving awe that kept you frozen in place. You squirmed in between your siblings to get to the front of the group- to get as close to Five as possible. But when he made eye contact with you, you were once again frozen in place. 

There he was. Home and alive and in mint fucking condition.

Even moreso, he was exactly the way you remembered him. He looked like he hadn’t aged a day. Even down to his fucking voice, he perfectly resembled the boy in the picture you’d kept on your nightstand for the past 17 years.

“Anyone care to tell me what year it is?”

If you blacked out or just forgot following Five and the others inside, you weren’t sure. Maybe the last of the drugs working their way out of your system was giving you problems, or maybe the repetitive shock of the day had finally gotten to you. 

Either way, you woke up with your face plastered to the kitchen table, sharing the bench with two of your brothers while the rest of your siblings sat across from you, save for Five, who sat confidently at the head of the table, eating a sandwich. They were all talking, but you couldn’t tell what they were saying yet, your mind too muddled from sleep and withdrawal.

At some point, Five had changed into his uniform. The sight was comforting, if melancholic. If you focused really hard and didn’t look at any of your other siblings, you could almost pretend you’d just dreamt up everything that had happened since the morning he disappeared.

Your legs still kinda hurt when you thought too hard about how you’d chased after him.

"Well good morning sleeping beauty!" Klaus patted your head, snapping you back to the world. You refused to take your eyes off of Five. If you lost sight of him for even a second he could be gone forever again and you couldn't handle that twice.

You tried to think of the right thing to say. Despite dreaming of this moment for over a decade, you _still_ weren’t sure if this was the kind of situation where you should be greeting him or if could you skip the formalities and go straight to the joyful sobbing? You wracked your brain for the perfect way to say “welcome home.”

"What the fuck?" You cried. Klaus stroked your hair comfortingly and shushed you.

"To make a very, _very_ long story short, the world is going to end in a week, and we're all basically dead!" Klaus explained.

"What? How do we know that?" You asked, your gaze finally breaking from Five as you lifted your head up off the table.

"I saw it." Five said. Hearing his voice again sent chills up your spine, and looking back up to find him staring down at you intently was nearly enough to make you black out all over again. "I traveled into the future, eight days from now, and landed in the apocalypse."

"Great, now that everybody is caught up to speed, I'm leaving." Diego stood up from beside you.

"Hey, no, we're not going anywhere until we figure out what's going on and how to stop it." Luther said.

"And yet, here I am. Leaving." Diego replied, stalking off to do whatever it was that he got up to those days. You'd have to ask him how he's been doing sometime, but currently you had bigger priorities. 

Like for example staring at your long lost brother, and trying not to lose your mind.

Vanya left next, mumbling something about a violin lesson, then Luther and Allison went to chase after Diego. Klaus stood up and stretched, groaning as he did so, then patted your head a final time and walked off.

“You two probably have a lot to talk about, sooooooo...I’ll be upstairs.”

The kitchen door clicked shut behind him, and it suddenly dawned on you that you and Five were alone together, for the first time since he’d disappeared. You opened your mouth but no words came, your throat too torn-up and swollen from crying. Luckily for you, Five was absolutely willing to take the conversational reigns.

“Hey there, doll. I missed you.”

You let out a single, ragged laugh, followed quickly by what seemed like an ocean’s worth of gleeful tears. 

“Holy shit, it really is you.”

“Yep. Forty-five years of new memories, same old stupid school uniform.”

“It’s been 17 years for me. Not very good ones.”

“Yeah, I kinda already know. A copy of Vanya’s book survived the apocalypse, so...I read about you. What happened to you when I...left.”

“I missed you. A lot.”

You reached out to Five and took his hand. He flinched, slightly, then settled into a state that made you think of a wet cat not trusting a warm towel to dry it off.

“I’m sorry, you know.”

“I know.”

“I never meant for this to...I mean, I didn’t expect it to go that wrong.”

“I know, Five.”

“I spent decades working out the equation to come back. Every second I was out there, stuck in the middle of that ash-pile, butt-fuck nowhere wasteland, I wanted to come home.”

“Five, I—“

“I never wanted to leave you behind.”

It struck you suddenly how incredible this was, to have him home and holding your hand. There were so many things you had wanted to say to him over the years, and now you actually _could_. 

You missed this. The way he looked at you when he was being serious, his eyes never leaving yours. You missed him so desperately for so long, and here he was! 

Instead of trying to sort out the words you'd been saving for him, you leaned in and kissed him.

He shivered, and if you were just a little closer, you would have felt his heart rate spike higher than it ever had. His hands took hold of either side of your face and he held you in that position, and through half-lidded eyes you could see his eyebrows scrunched up almost angrily in concentration.

He kissed you back like a man starved, and in a sense he was. It felt like he was trying to drink the breath right out of your lungs.

You only pulled back when you needed air. His nails scratched your scalp and cheeks ever so slightly as you tilted back, like he was restraining himself from digging his fingers into your hair and dragging you back.

You didn’t bother leaning back into your seat, opting instead to rest your forehead on his, holding his hands in your over his lap. You couldn’t tell if the shaking was from your hands or his, if it was from withdrawal tremors or adrenaline shivers. You didn’t care. All that mattered was that Five was home, and you were alone together, holding hands again.

You’d almost forgotten how it felt to be happy.

Speaking of things you'd almost forgotten.

"Wait, I'm only just now processing this, the end of the world is in _eight days_?"

"Not if we can figure out how to stop it." Five said, standing up from the table. You rushed to join him, tripping over your legs trying to get up from the bench. 

"Can we put that on hold for just a minute?" You pleaded. "I know that it's literally the end of the world but I haven't seen you in so fucking long Five."

Five looked torn. He thought for a second, then held out his hand to you, palm up. You took it instantly, reveling in the oh-so-familiar feeling of Five’s fingers interlaced with yours. 

“I need to do some digging. Research, calculations, that sort of thing. I... _we_ can’t waste any time, but...you can stay with me while I work, ok?”

You nodded hastily, perfectly happy at the thought of reliving the late nights you’d spent in the library watching Five scribbling in notebooks and talking his way through problems. 

He squeezed your hand, then gently tugged it out of your grip, much to your dismay. The heartbroken look you wore made his heart hurt.

“It’s just for a minute. The books I need are in my room, but we have to walk past everyone else to get there.”

Oh, right. You’d gotten so used to strangers being ignorant to the fact that you and Klaus were siblings, you’d almost forgotten the illicit nature of your relationship with him, and Five for that matter. Sure, maybe your dad wasn’t around anymore to use a cane to “remind” you not to get too attached, but the rest of your siblings had no idea what you’d been up to.

You...really did not want to have that conversation anytime soon.

"Okay. Yeah, okay let's go." Your fists clenched and unclenched, you didn't know what to do with your hands. How did you ever know what to do with them when you weren't holding Five?

Most of your siblings had cleared out already, you couldn't blame them for getting the hell out of here as quickly as possible. Luther however was still at home, just like always. You wondered briefly what he's been up to since the rest of you left the academy. Was this the first time you'd seen him since you left? Shit!

What a reunion.

Your eyes caught a glimpse of Klaus, who had a “sober, and really upset about it” energy to him. Still fighting the urge to hold Five, you settled for hugging Klaus, who immediately wrapped his arms around you. The fake fur on his jacket tickled your nose, and the familiar smell of cigarettes and rainwater pulled you out of your musings and back to reality. 

“Are you going somewhere?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah! I’m just gonna go grab tonight’s dose. You uh...you stay here, I’ll be back. Hey Five, you keep an eye on her, ok?”

Five gave him an annoyed, befuddled look.

Klaus broke the hug, clapped his hands together, and sniffed.

“I’ll just be...going now.”

With a kiss to your forehead and a ruffle of your hair, Klaus turned on his heels and sped out the door.

“See ya later, sis!”

The door slammed shut behind him, the noise seeming to break Five out of his confused trance.

“What the fuck was that?”

"What was what?" You had a feeling you knew exactly what he was referring to, but that was another conversation that you _really_ didn't want to have.

"Don't play dumb with me, you're better than that." Five remarked. From anyone else that statement would have felt like an insult, but you knew Five well enough to know exactly what he meant every time he spoke.

"Five, a lot of stuff has happened since you left. Klaus and I-" you pause, not quite sure how to broach the subject delicately.

"You’ve been doing drugs together." Five finishes for you.

Oh. 

So he didn't know that you and Klaus... 

Yikes. 

You did not look forward to that conversation either.

“...yeah. Are...are you mad?” The statement sounded so childish leaving your lips. Not even an hour since Five had come back into your life and you’d already fallen back into the same mentality you had when he’d left. 

“No, no, god no.” The underlying message wasn’t lost on you. In his own way, Five was telling you he couldn’t bring himself to get angry at you.

“I know it’s bad, ok? But you were gone, and after...what, two years straight, of almost nonstop meltdowns, I just...I needed something.”

“I know. If I were in your position I probably would have done the same. I’m not happy about it, mind you, but I’m not... _mad_.”

“Thank you, Five.”

“Don’t thank me yet. Thank me _after_ we get you clean.”

“...what?”

"Did you think I was just going to let you keep doing them?" He gave a sardonic laugh, but cut it short when he realized how distressed you were. He said your name softly, in a way that made it feel like he was reciting poetry, and reached up to cup your cheek with one hand and tuck your hair behind your ear with the other.

You leaned into his touch, wishing for him to just keep his hands on you forever. 

"I'm here now. And I'm going to take care of you." Five said firmly, in his "there's no use arguing" voice, one that he had rarely used with you. You let out a shakey breath and did your best to smile for him. He was right, he was home now. He was home and he still loved you and he still wanted to take care of you and aside from the whole apocalypse and the having to make sure Klaus and Five never ever mention their intimate reltions with you to one another, things were really looking up for you.

Five was home, and he was asking—no, _insisting_ that you let him care for you. Just like he always had. You lean in, ready to kiss him and tell him ' _yes, I'm yours to care for, I'll do anything you ask of me, no matter how much it hurts_ ’ but the creaking of the floorboards stops you in your tracks.

"Am I interrupting something?" Luther asked.

“Yes, actually.” Five practically growled, clearly just as annoyed at the interruption as you were. “Since you’re here, you can make it up to us. Would you happen to know if there’s any ice packs in this shithole?”

“Uh, yeah? In the medicine closet, why?”

“I don’t have to explain right now. We’ll be upstairs, don’t bother us unless it’s an emergency. A _dire_ emergency, got it?”

Luther just nodded, stunned. Five payed him no mind, just walking towards the stairs and motioning for you to follow. You scampered after him like a lovesick puppy, and even though the fear of going through a withdrawal was starting to seep into your brain, it was easily assuaged by the knowledge that Five was the one handling the situation. Five knew what to do, he _always_ knew what to do.

So you trusted him, and didn’t ask questions when he snatched a dozen ice packs from the makeshift medical center you’d spent so much of your childhood getting patched up in. You didn’t bother asking why he dragged you into one of the pristine, white-tiled bathrooms, or why he locked the door behind him. You only thought to wonder aloud why he was guiding you to sit down in the bathtub, and why he seemed so insistent on you removing your jacket.

“Well, aside from making sure you don’t have anything you can smoke with you at the moment, you’re not gonna want to be wearing this thing when the fever sets in.”

“Fever?”

“Part of the detox. Your body is going to react to the lack of toxins the same way it would react to a pathogen, and in this case that means fever, nausea, and a fuckload of other symptoms we can deal with as they come.”

You gulped, nodding. This was actually happening, wasn’t it?

“I’ll be here every step of the way, ok?”

You held out your pinkie.

“Promise?”

Five smiled softly, and linked his pinkie with yours. 

“Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Klaus: Do you ever want to talk about your emotions, Five?  
> Five: No.  
> Reader: I do!  
> Klaus: I know, Eight.  
> Reader: I’m sad.  
> Klaus: I know, Eight.


	5. October 17th 2001

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s hard fitting quality time into a schedule like yours, but you make do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty bad TW for parental emotional abuse later in the chapter, be wary if you’re sensitive to that’s sort of thing.

It was rare that you got to really sit and watch the sun rise. Dad had you all wake up early enough to see it, but you were always kept too busy to really witness it.

A mission late last night (a particularly brutal one for you especially) had kept you awake, even after your mother had put you all to bed, tucking you in and promising a very special breakfast for a job well done when you woke again.

But you couldn't rest. You had far too much on your mind to sleep. You wondered if this was how Five felt all the time, if the constant turning of the gears in his head kept him awake at night. You tried to resist, but the urge to seek him out was far too strong. 

The two of you had become especially close in the last year or so. You loved all of your siblings, of course, but you _definitely_ picked favorites. You slipped out of your bed and made your way over to the wall on the other side of the room, careful to avoid the floorboards you knew were especially creaky.

You knocked on the wall, twice, once, three times, and from behind you heard the familiar sound of Five zapping his way into your room.

“Can’t sleep?”

“Nope.”

“Well good, I managed to get my hands on another book.”

You grinned, tugging his hand and leading him over to your bed, where you could sit together huddled under the blankets and read his stolen book by flashlight in whispered voices.

Five was never the type of person to be ok with limitations, especially when it was someone else enforcing those limitations. That sentiment went double when that person was your father, so when Reginald had so sternly told you to stay away from a certain section of the library, insisting that the books within those shelves were far too mature for the pair of you, Five took it as a personal challenge.

You didn’t really understand what was so special about those books. You saw worse things on a regular basis whenever you went on missions, reading about some war wasn’t going to traumatize you. 

Either way, Five had been very proud of himself when he’d managed to steal a half dozen books without getting caught, and if Five was proud of himself you were proud of him too. It had become a routine eventually, stealing a random forbidden book and reading it together.

“So, what did you grab this time?”

“I dunno, the lights were off. Wanna find out?”

You hummed with agreement, cozying yourself in between him and the wall. The sun peaking over the horizon gave you just enough light to see the book Five had quickly vanished to retrieve. It seemed like the book had yet to be read by anyone, it's spine uncracked and it's cover pristine.

 _Lolita_ , it read. You traced your fingers across the cover, admiring the drawing of a girl who seemed to be about your age. You couldn't see most of her face but you absolutely adored her hair, two thick braids falling over her shoulders, tied with pale pink ribbons.

"I wish I could have my hair like that," you sighed.

Five shifted, laying the book in your lap and situating himself behind you. His hands found their way to your hair, and for as stunned as you were, the feeling of his hands carefully separating your hair into sections and brushing it out with his fingers was the most calming thing you’d ever felt. 

“You know how to braid?”

“Mhmm. Watched Allison braiding a doll’s hair once, easy trick to pick up on. You read tonight, I’ll finish these.”

You flicked on the flashlight, content to read the poetic, if confusing text on the pages in front of you. 

Five’s hands worked quickly, the precise moments weaving your hair together into a perfect little plait. He occasionally brushed the other, unbraided half of your hair over your shoulder, keeping it away from his half-finished work.

It took every ounce of your self control to not shiver when his fingertips brushed over your neck. 

“How are you gonna tie them?” You asked, in a feeble attempt to distract yourself.

Five was silent, then switched the braid to one hand, and slid his other hand around your waist. You froze, not knowing what was happening, and couldn’t stop your blood from running cold when he untied the bow you’d done up on your pajama’s drawstring.

Five’s hand slipped away, leaving you feeling unfulfilled. He tied the braid’s ends together with the end of the drawstring, leaving enough string leftover to tie the other when he was done.

“Well, don’t stop on my account. The story was just starting to pick up.”

You cleared your throat and tried to ignore how warm you felt all of the sudden. You tried to find your spot but you were too flustered to focus.

"I'm just- I'm gonna start over. You distracted me." You hear him huff behind you, though you can't tell if it's laughter or annoyance.

You flip back a few pages to the beginning of the book.

 _”Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.”_ You read, doing your very best to keep your voice steady when Five leaned forward and rested his head on top of your shoulder.

"It's a pretty name." He mumbled, warm breath tickling your neck.

"Which one? There's like six different names in there!" You tease, and yelp when Five pinches your hip in retaliation.

"All of them I guess. Dolly mostly... It reminds me of you." 

"Hm. I guess. Dolly is okay but it sounds like something you'd call a child." You say, blatantly ignoring the fact that you are in fact a child.

"What about just Doll then?"

"Doll is good. I think Delores is prettier though."

“Hmm. It’s too grown up. Delores sounds like someone who’d shop at fancy department stores and argue with her husband. Plus, I’m braiding your hair like a Barbie doll, so it makes more sense.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” You could _feel_ him smiling at you, with that smug expression he always wore when he knew he’d won.

You leaned backwards into Five’s hold, trying to keep your breathing steady as you read on.

_”Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.”_

“Oh, our narrator is a criminal then? On trial, I wonder what for.”

“Maybe he’s innocent. He seems very well-spoken, almost like mother and father, or Pogo, or Luther.”

“I doubt it. Where’s the fun in reading about someone innocent?”

"Yeah, that's true. What do you think he did?" 

Five hummed and you could feel him make the noise. You'd never get used to being this close to him. You'd never understand why it was you of all people he chose to spend what little free time he had with. Not that you were complaining of course, it was just a mystery.

He was so clever and quick and handsome- what? Stop it! Don't think about your brother like that! You chastised yourself for being so _weird_ , you could practically feel dad's disapproval, even though you were certain he must still be sleeping.

"Something to do with the girl I'm sure." Five responded and you nodded in kind, forcing yourself to ignore how soft his hair was when your cheek brushed against it.

"Five." You whisper intently, shutting the book but keeping your finger in between the pages to keep your place. "We're... You treat me different. From our siblings I mean. It's not a bad thing! I just..." You trailed off, using your free hand to trace around the cover of the book again. "Why?"

“You’re important, that’s all. I can talk to you, and unlike the rest of our siblings, I can actually hold a conversation with you without wanting to tear my hair out. You think I could sit and analyze a book with Luther, or Diego, or Allison, or god forbid, Klaus?”

“No, probably not.” You laughed at the thought of Klaus trying to follow one of Five’s more passionate rants.

“ _Maybe_ I could talk through it with Vanya, but...you’re different. You listen, and it’s not so infuriating trying to explain things to you, because you’re smart enough to actually understand some of it.”

“Five, that was mean.”

“I disagree. I am consistently the smartest man in the room, and I would think being second to me is practically an accomplishment.”

You laughed, and you felt Five chuckle softly against your shoulder.

“...there’s that too.”

“Hmm?”

“I can actually enjoy myself around you.”

"It's just because I'm nice to look at!" You teased, trying to deflect from how warm and fuzzy his words made you feel.

"Well it definitely doesn't hurt your case." Five joked, punctuating the sentence with a poke to your stomach. That was another thing- he was so touchy with you! Any time you two spent alone Five insisted on being as close to you as he could.

It confused you, it made you nauseous and giddy and terrified all at once. When Five rested his hands on top of yours it made flowers bloom in your stomach and bee's buzz in your head.

"Do you want me to keep reading?" You asked in a hushed voice. More and more light was flooding your room with every passing moment. Every second you spent nestled against Five was a second closer to being caught like that.

“I would love that, but you know what happens if I get found in here.”

“Yeah, I know.”

To be fair, you didn’t know from experience, exactly. You’d heard about it from Diego once, how Luther and Allison got caught sneaking away to play together, and now disastrous it had been for them when they got caught. 

You’d almost pity them, if you weren’t just a bit jealous you hadn’t already thought to do that with Five. 

Either way, you wouldn’t want to go through the same punishments they did, much less put Five through it. Sorrowfully, you let Five out of your bed, taking a final peek at the book in your hand so you could remember the page you left off on.

“Keep that.”

“The book?”

“Yep. I’ll come back again, we can read more then. Stash it under your mattress or in your underwear drawer or something, somewhere nobody else is going to go digging. Dad never even goes in the library anymore, he won’t notice it missing.”

“Ok. I’ll see you at breakfast, ok?”

Five nodded, and zapped out of the room, leaving you to hide a contraband book and get ready for yet another meal where you could hold your brother’s hand under the table while Klaus snuck sips from a flask on your other side.

You were prepared for that routine. You were prepared for silence, and then training, and maybe if you were lucky you would find a minute off.

What you weren’t prepared for was your father’s rather extreme reaction to your hair.

“It’s unbecoming of someone in your position. It’s impractical, it leaves you vulnerable! Someone could simply take hold of one of those braids and tear your scalp off!”

Your throat closed up. You always found yourself choking when you tried to speak to your father. You reached back and touched the braids witch trembling hands. Your fingers closed around the knots tying them in place, but you just couldn't bring yourself to undo them.

"Number Eight." Your father barked. "Remove them at once." You tug on the ends of your hair but you still don't take them out. 

This back and forth struggle continues until your father threatens to cut the braids out of your hair. By then you had tears streaming down your face and dripping into your oatmeal.

You struggled to untie the knots, seeing Five's hands twitch out of the corner of your eyes. Before he could reach up to help you like you knew he intended to, you yanked the drawstring out of your hair, raking your fingers through it to undo the braids. 

Five's fists were clenched under the table, you knew he wanted to protest. You begged him not to with a simple nudge of your foot, and luckily for you he resigned himself to angrily finishing his breakfast.

When your father declared that the meal was over Klaus nudged you and whispered a compliment about the hair. You smiled, though your face ached from crying.

Your father made you train longer and harder than usual, which you supposed you sort of deserved. Even when your siblings were sent off to bed you were forced to endure another hour, two hours, three hours of grueling physical training.

"Dad _please_ , I'm sorry about breakfast! I'm so tired, I won't do it again just please let me go to bed!" You begged, kneeling on the ground at his feet, too weak to pull yourself up into a standing position.

"Your insolence will not go unpunished Number Eight." He said firmly. You nodded feverishly, praying that he would let you rest now, you could handle more punishment, you could be pushed farther, harder, if you just got a moment to rest.

You got your moment, but as always the universe was going to make you regret your wish.

You passed out to the sound of your father making damn sure you knew how disappointed he was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fuck you, worldbuilding can be emotional.


	6. Detox, Retox

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Withdrawal isn’t pretty, but neither is the apocalypse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If purely to quote our lord and savior Ashnikko, “Fuck the timeline, I’m in the future”.

When you’d stayed up late before, letting yourself daydream about Five coming home, this was about the last thing you’d considered. 

Not that you were complaining, of course, but somewhere past the rush of lovesick euphoria and the creeping dread of withdrawal setting in, it struck you how truly strange the whole situation was.

Your teleporting brother, your one true love who had vanished out of the world years prior, suddenly fell back into your life, with his body exactly the same as when he’d left. If that wasn’t enough on it own, now he had you in just a shirt and shorts, in a bathtub full of ice packs, with an electric kettle full of coffee plugged in next to him.

If you ignored the onset of fever and nausea, it would almost be nice. You and him in a locked room, surrounded by the smell of paper and coffee. 

It was almost nostalgic.

It would probably be at least a little bit less weird if had been talking about something normal and not the imminent destruction of your planet.

"So do you have any idea how to stop the apocalypse or do we have to figure that out too?" You asked. Asking Five about the fate of the world felt like a mission debriefing immediately before your father sent you into some terrible danger.

"I admit, I don't have much, but I do have this," he replied, pulling a glass eye out of his pocket. Both of you examined it for a moment before you spoke again.

"And what's this thing about?" You asked straining your back to lean sideways over the bathtub. Were you always this achy and frail?

"When I got to the apocalypse Luther was holding this."

“Wait, you met Luther in the apocalypse? How did he survive?”

“...he didn’t.”

“Oh.”

“None of you did.”

Five sighed, staring at the glass eye with his eyebrows furrowed, with the same expression he always wore when you were younger and he had trouble with a particularly complex math problem, like he knew exactly how to find the answer, but couldn’t force the numbers to do what he wanted.

You reached over, and as Five balled his fist around the offending glass sphere, you wrapped your hand over his as best you could. 

“So...the eye is important, do we know how?”

“No, and that’s our problem. The apocalypse could be caused by anything, literally _anything_ could be the catalyst, and all we have to go on is that whoever this belongs to is involved somehow.”

“Maybe—ugh...”

“What, what’s wrong?”

“I just...I got a pang in my head right then.”

Five went whiter than paper.

“Shit, already? I thought it would take longer than that for anything to set in.”

"I think you're severely underestimating just how much dumb shit I did after you disappeared." You said squeezing your eyes shut as if you could squeeze out the sharp pain in your head.

Five flipped the light switch, the bathroom was then only lit by the sun shining through white lace cutains. You mumbled a thank you and lifted your head from the porcelain to give him a grateful smile.

"I'm okay, promise." You lied. "I'd say priority number one is figuring out who that eye belongs to."

"Yeah, no. You're priority number one right now, I'm not letting you out of my sight." Five argued, pocketing the eye.

"That's so sweet Five but also figuring out what significance that eye has to the end of the world is kind of something that should be addressed as soon as possible." It made your heart flutter to hear him argue against the world in favor of you, but you had to admit that would be a pretty shitty deal for the world.

"I'm not going, you're just starting to experience withdrawals, it would be stupid of me to leave you alone now." 

"I won't go anywhere! I'm not lying Five, I swear I'll stay while you go figure all this shit out." 

"You might mean that now but who knows how quickly you'll reach your breaking point." 

"Okay well, consider this, if we don't figure this apocalypse stuff out in time I'll be dead, but if we get it done as soon as possible I can sit in cold bathtubs and feel like shit for as long as I want!" You tried to keep your tone light but you Five once again looked like he was stuck right in the middle of a problem. To be fair, he really was.

"Fine, okay. You stay here, I'll take Klaus with so he doesn't give you anything while I'm gone." 

You smiled, surprised to hear him agreeing so quickly. He'd always hated leaving you alone, though it had usually been Reginald who insisted on your isolation. 

He took your hand and kissed your knuckles, something he'd never done before, and it made your heart dance. He leaned in to give you a real kiss, but just as your lips met you heard metal jangling and a lock clicking.

"Five."

"... Yes?"

"Did you just handcuff me to the fucking bathtub?"

“Just a precaution. Considering the company you’ve been keeping lately, I’d say it’s a necessary one.”

“So...you just happened to have handcuffs with you, and you just happened to bring them into a locked room with me?”

“I know what you’re thinking, and you need to stop thinking it. We will have all the time in the world for that, _after_ you get clean and we stop the apocalypse.”

You pouted, and Five scoffed. The familiar sound of him pretending to be annoyed at you made you laugh, and you were absolutely thrilled to see the ghost of a smile cross his face.

The moment was nice, just a sweet second of silent togetherness, but like all good things you’d ever had, it didn’t last. 

Your phone rang in your discarded jacket’s pocket, and Five dropped your hand to reach for it.

“...it’s Klaus.”

“Well, he did mention earlier that he had... _plans_ for us tonight.”

“Of fucking course he does.”

Five frustratedly fumbled with the touch screen, and it hit you that he’d probably never even seen one before. Thank god he learned fast.

He kept the speaker off, but in the tiny room you could just make out what Klaus was saying.

“Hey, babe, where’d you go, I thought we were gonna have fun tonight?”

“ _She_ is being taken care of.” Five shot back, malice and barely-contained rage lacing his words like venom. “ _I_ am dealing with the shit _you_ dragged her into.”

"Rain check Klaus. Probably, kind of...forever..." You said.

Five raised his eyebrow at your noncommittal attitude.

"What? _Liebling_ , no!" Klaus whined from the other end of the line. 

"Sorry Klaus!" Before he could get a word in edgeways Five had hung up on him.

"I'll be back soon." Five said, tucking your phone into his blazer pocket.

"Don't be too mean to him Five, okay?" You pleaded.

“Define ‘too mean’ for me, would ya?”

“No bodily harm, no psychological warfare, and please don’t bring up the ghosts.”

“Deal, but only if you promise you won’t try to escape. I’m taking the key with me anyway, but still. If you end up breaking your wrist, you’ll have a lot more trouble helping me stop doomsday.”

“I’d also have trouble holding your hand.”

“...yeah. That too.”

With that, and a final squeeze of your hand, Five left, locking the door behind him.

He had a glass eye to track down, and a brother he needed to have a little talk with.

Thankfully the internet was, just as Five had been told before, invaluable in terms of finding where the glass eye had come from. A quick google search told him the location of the company that manufactured its type, right down to the street address. 

Klaus on the other hand was a little more difficult to find.

He was clever enough to steer clear of the academy, but not clever enough to evade Five, who found Klaus at a bar not too far from the mansion.

"This place is a shit hole." Five said, zapping into a seat at the bar next to Klaus.

"Hey, this is my favorite bar!" Klaus mumbled, lifting his face off of the countertop.

"What's this places name?" Five countered.

"Ah, you got me dear brother of mine. I have no idea where I am currently. Did you need something?"

“You could say that. I’m looking for something, and you’re coming with me.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep.”

“What’s in it for me?”

“...twenty bucks.”

“Hmm.”

“Twenty bucks and I _don’t_ shove that empty bottle up your ass.”

“You drive a hard bargain, deal.”

“Good. Now get up, you’re not leaving my sight until I find what I need and we get back to the house.”

“Speaking of the house, did you leave our poor, defenseless sister all alone back there? Dick move to be honest.”

“First off, she’s not defenseless. Second off, for now she’s far better off at home, and _away_ from _you_.”

“Whoa, hey now, is that any way to thank the guy who took care of her for years after you left?”

"I would hardly call any of what you did 'care’.”Five snapped. 

"Ouch! Very rude. I'll have you know sweet little Number Eight and I have been an incredible team!" Klaus said, knocking back a drink and turning over his shoulder to argue into empty space.

"Really. You got her addicted to god knows what and just spent the whole time doing a bunch of stupid, probably life threatening shit, and you'd call that care?"

"Okay okay, maybe we were a little irresponsible with the substance use but she's fine! I mean, as fine as any one of us weirdos can be." Klaus raised up his glass, becoming quite disappointed when he realized it was empty.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Five barked, catching the attention of the bartender for a brief moment. “You took advantage of her. You were a desperate, narcissistic attention whore, and when you stopped getting that attention from everyone else, you turned her into an addict so she’d pay attention to you in exchange for a fix.”

“Oh my dear sweet little...big... _older_ brother, you are severely underestimating her agency in all this. That’s your problem, you know? You think it’s always someone else’s fault when it comes to her. Or yourself, honestly.”

“I’m not underestimating shit.” Spat Five. “I read Vanya’s book, and don’t think I didn’t notice those track marks on her arms looking just like yours. Don’t forget, I spent more time with her than _any_ of you before I got trapped in that hellscape, and I know damn well she would never be anywhere near your worthless junkie ass if _you_ hadn’t doped her up in the first place!”

“Whoa dude.” Mumbled Klaus, after taking a moment to recover from Five’s rage. “You’re getting way to into this, it’s almost like—oh. Oooooh!” 

Klaus laughed, causing Five to grip the edge of the bartop to stop himself from breaking Klaus’ nose right there and then.

“What? What’s so fucking funny?!”

“Aww, haha, you’re into her dude! Oof, I’ll bet...I’ll bet you’ve been thinkin’ an-and dreamin’ about coming back and kissing her, and pinning her down like when we sparred together as kids, but like, _naked_ this time! Ha, fuck, man I’m in no place to judge, I mean shit, I’ve done way...way more. But still, kinda pathetic dude.”

Five froze in his spot, fists clenched so hard around the edge of the bar that he thought it might just shatter underneath him.

"What the _fuck_ are you talking about, Klaus?" He asked, though it was less of a question and more of a command.

"Well, you see little Five, when two grown ups love each other very much-"

"So not only did you ruin her life with drugs, but you also took advantage of her loneliness for your own disgusting benefit!" Five snapped.

"Okay, I'm gonna shut this down right here, _no one_ is being taken advantage of, we're two consenting adults and what goes on in our bedroom is none of anybody else's business. Well, except for poor unfortunate Ben, he's seen such terrible, _terrible_ things."

“Bullshit, you dosed her up! You got her hooked, and then you decided you couldn’t keep it in your pants and took that out on her!”

“No, no, no, listen to me, _she_ came onto _me_ , I just...y’know, said yes!”

“Were you high?”

“Well, yeah, we both were.”

“Were you the one who gave her whatever she was on?”

“Well, yeah, but—“

“Then it’s your fault!”

Klaus sighed, clearly he wasn’t going to get anywhere with this conversation. Five took a breath, scowling at his own white-knuckled hands gripping the bar. 

“You know what? We can do this later. I have an apocalypse to stop, and a family to save. Unfortunately part of that plan involves keeping you and her away from each other, so guess what?”

“What?”

“We’re going on a road trip.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vanya, watching three of her siblings fight over their love triangle: Maybe it’s ok I wasn’t part of all that.


	7. March 3rd, 2002

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Missions aren’t exactly fun, but they sure are exhilarating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rumor come out. Does Number Eight is Powers?

Alarms were not exactly the most pleasant way to wake up, but you had to admit, there was something uniquely thrilling about being thrown into the adrenaline rush of mission prep.

Grace helped you lace up your heavy, steel-toed boots, only taking a break to help Ben fix his zipper, you snapped your (honestly kind of uncomfortable) mask on, and rushed to your father’s office for debriefing.

“There is a hostage situation in the south end of the city. You all are to extract them safely, and apprehend those responsible. Understand?”

“Yes sir!” Said Luther, clearly exited to play the hero again. If it didn’t mean you were preparing to risk your life, his enthusiasm would almost be sweet.

You always hated how nervous you got before missions- or perhaps it was more like you hated that your body got nervous and your brain remained collected. Your stomach would turn and your palms would sweat and sometimes you'd get so lightheaded that you'd start to see spots.

On the bright side though, Five never seemed to mind your clammy hands. He'd hold your hand just for a second, and squeeze, a gentle reminder of his presence. 

The hostage situation had taken place at a tall, expensive looking building, though you couldn't quite tell what the building was actually for. Was it a fancy corporate office? Maybe some bougee appartments?

It didn't matter either way. You had a job to do, and focusing on anything else could cost someone their life. And that was a _lot_ of pressure to be putting on a 12 year old. You could see it in your siblings, Ben especially, that no one wanted to be here. 

No doubt all of you would bask in the attention of the general public after the mission, but for now all you needed to focus on was getting into this building and saving people.

Five was about to zap past the back door when Diego stabbed the electric lock. The door fizzled and sparked, but clicked open. Luther stood in front of the doorway, in his _Please-Assume-I’m-In-Charge-Here_ superhero stance.

“Five, Diego, Ben, you’re with me. The kidnappers are on the top floor and we can’t have them freaking out and shooting anyone.”

Ben sighed, Diego scoffed, and Five mumbled an annoyed agreement. Luther paid them no mind, and nodded to you and Allison.

“You two free the hostages, Allison can rumor anyone who’s panicking too much to move.”

Allison nodded, and you gave your _fearless leader_ a mocking salute.

“Hey what about me?” Asked Klaus.

“You...stay out of trouble.”

Klaus kicked the cement at his feet, grumbling something about how nobody let him do anything. 

Luther slowly pushed the door in, checking to see if there was anyone there.

You were snapped out of your mask of confidence by Diego’s hand grabbing your shoulder.

“You sure you can handle this?”

You nodded happily. Diego shot you a half-smile and shoved past the door, followed by you and the rest of your siblings.

You and Allison split away from your brothers at the stairs. They could charge in and be as loud and reckless as they wanted, you and Allison had _real_ work to do. Not that taking down a bunch of domestic terrorists wasn't real work, but it was definitely more important that you got all of those innocent people out of this terrible situation.

The two of you (trailed closely by Klaus, who didn't want to be left by himself) managed to sneak up to the roof unnoticed, mostly due to the fact that the men with guns had most of their attention directed towards your brothers, who were thoroughly kicking their asses.

The rooftop was surprisingly pleasant- or it would be in other circumstances. There were fancy, well manicured flowers and shrubs planted around the area, creating a convenient hidden escape route for you to send hostages through. Briefly, you thought that this was the kind of place you'd like to visit with Five if you were allowed to go places.

That thought was cut off quickly by the sound of Allison trying to convince one of the hostages to move from behind one plant so they could hide behind another and escape. You didn't hear exactly what the hostage said, but their words shot around in your brain like a ricocheted bullet. That person was lying, and about something important too.

You rushed over, tugged Allison off of the tied-up hostage, and yelled at him as quietly as you could to repeat what he’d just said.

“I’m just trying to keep everyone safe, I swear!”

Every bright red alarm bell you had in your brain went off, the pungent, sandpapery sensation of falsity in the man’s words practically scraping your eardrums with every syllable.

“Hey, what’s the deal?!” Allison asked.

“He’s lying. Rumor him, please, just make him stop!”

Allison gave you a concerned glance, then turned back to the man.

“I heard a rumor...that you told us the truth.”

The man’s eyes went white and his jaw slacked. 

“I’m a plant.” He drones, entirely monotone. “It’s my job to keep all the hostages in place and stop them from trying to escape. If any of them act up I’m supposed to undo the quick release knot on my binds and attack my friends so they have an excuse to start shooting.”

Allison kicked the man square in the chest, knocking his breath out. While he was down, she pinned him on his face, and got to work undoing the rope and redoing it in a secure knot.

“You and Klaus go free the others, I’ll handle this one!”

You dashed back and forth between large floral displays, ushering people out of the building as quietly as possible. For a split second as you ran out from behind a massive bush of red carnations your eyes locked with Five's.

His nose was bloody, which made you incredibly nervous. Five rarely ever let the other guys get a hit in on him. You must have stayed out in the open for just a second too long because suddenly you're landing face first on the cement, with someone's foot on your back, pressing you to the ground.

The physical pain wasn't as bad as knowing that your father would lecture you about that slip up for weeks, if not the rest of your life. 

With your skull pressed into the floor you couldn't really _see_ what was going on around you, but you could certainly hear it. The sound of Five appearing next to you is quickly accompanied by the sound of your attacker hitting the ground on your other side.

The next thing you heard was the ceramic flowerpot Five had hit your assailant over the head with landing on the ground and shattering, followed by a pained groan from the now-incapacitated kidnapper.

You rolled onto your back, away from the man’s body, and were greeted by the oh-so-comforting sight of Five, with someone else’s blood staining his sleeve, holding his hand out to you.

“You good?”

You smiled and took his hand, letting him pull you to your feet. A quick “thanks” and you both were back to your goal, you ushering the last few hostages towards the door to the stairwell, and Five zapping away to finish beating his targets unconscious.

Allison and Klaus caught up to you a few moments later, having finished leading everyone out of the building and into the street, where armed government officials and the camera-toting press waited. 

The three of you ran to help the rest of your siblings, but fortunately found them safe, if a little battered, with a handful of burly men in masks tied up and pinned to a radiator vent with some of Diego’s knives. 

Ben wasn’t covered in gore and viscera like he usually was when he used his powers, so you hoped he managed to get through the mission without having to use them. Luther and Diego had matching black eyes, the latter also sporting a busted lip. Five seemed very annoyed that his nose had the audacity to be bleeding.

You were just happy everyone was safe.

Just as you had predicted, when you and your siblings finally exited the building (all of you absolutely reeking of blood and sweat) there were crowds cheering for you and cameras flashing. 

You smiled, pleased that there didn't appear to be any casualties. Aside from getting thoroughly acquainted with the cement roof of the building, you would say that this mission had gone pretty well. 

But quickly the sea of people and flashing lights became overwhelming instead of comforting. The adrenaline of the mission was fading with alarming speed, and you realized that one side of your face was littered with small scrapes.

None of them were deep enough to bleed for more than a second but they hurt like all hell. You quietly shuffled behind your siblings as the seven of you crammed together on the steps of the building to pose for the front page of every newspaper in the city.

Klaus threw his arms over you and Five just before the flash went off. Five stiffened, but accepted it, while you happily leaned into the touch. All seven of you smiled for the camera, and were quickly ushered into one of your dad’s cars once a sufficient amount of photos had been taken. 

The car’s driver, you think his name was Marco? Or maybe it was Marcus. Either way, he nodded to your little group as you stumbled into the seats, muttering a halfhearted “good job” to you once the door closed behind you.

As you tried your best to be as close to Five as possible without arousing suspicion from your siblings, Luther broke the silence.

“We did great out there today. We saved a bunch of people, like real heroes!”

Allison mimicked the sentiment enthusiastically, with Diego chiming in after her with a reluctant agreement.

Ben _still_ looked like he’d rather be anywhere else, and Klaus sort of looked like he was _trying_ to be somewhere else.

"We did _fine_. We were _passable_. Still won't be enough to satisfy the old man though." Five commented, staring out the window with his arms folded across his chest.

"He's right." You said, picking dried blood off the side of your head. "What do you guys think he's gonna yell at us for this time?" You asked. Luther gave you a pointed look.

"Eight, _don't_." He said firmly. You just crossed your legs and rolled your eyes, catching a hint of a smile from Five. It wasn't often that you'd be so blunt, it was a rare treat for him to get to see you being the sass master for once.

"He's probably gonna tell at us for killing all those flowers." Diego said, blatantly ignoring Luther.

"Oh yeah, and he's gonna say something about how flowers are all super important and shit, like when he made us learn ballroom dancing!" Klaus chimed in.

"Guys, seriously, cut it out." Luther insisted, though you didn’t bother to acknowledge him.

“No, he’s right, _One_.” Said Diego. “We saved the day while he sat on his ass, and it’s still not gonna be good enough for him, and we’re still gonna have to go through more training tonight, just watch.”

Luther fell silent, for as much as he obviously wanted to argue, he couldn’t. Diego was right, and he knew it. 

The adrenaline from the mission faded, and a sullen energy fell over your siblings. 

You wished you could lean on Five’s shoulder. You wished you could hold his hand or hug him or cry your eyes out on his blazer. But you couldn’t, because if your siblings knew about you, then your dad would know, and if your dad knew, your life would be even more of a living hell than it already was.

You were just as quiet stepping through the doors of the Academy as you were when you snuck through the stairway door of the kidnappers’ hideout.

You spent the rest of the day in a trance, an almost sleepwalking state, mindlessly going about your business until finally you could shut your door and hole up in your room to sleep.

You waited at least an hour before knocking on the wall that connected yours and Five's bedrooms.

When you turned around, he was already sitting at the edge of your bed, still donning his uniform instead of pajamas. At least he left his shoes off this time.

"Can't sleep?" He gave you a half smile and gestured for you to come sit. You did so, nearly toppling over the bed in your haste.

He seemed surprised, but gently guided your head to rest on his lap, with the scratched side of your head facing up. You curled up in a ball in his hold, feeling just as tiny and insignificant as you always did when things got too much. 

One of Five’s hands threaded gently through your hair. He sighed, the kind he only made when he was truly, genuinely _sad_ about something. You tried to look up at him, concerned. He only made that noise when he felt powerless.

Five avoided your eye contact, opting instead to lean over to your bedside table and pull your first aid kit out of the drawer. He dug a cotton ball and a tiny bottle of rubbing alcohol out of the kit, and finally locked eyes with you as he brushed your hair away from the cuts on your cheek.

“This is gonna hurt a bit. Try and stay quiet.”

You had to bite your lip to keep yourself from making too much noise. When you whimpered Five would run his free hand through your hair. It really did help calm you down.

When he finished cleaning you up you sat up and pressed your head against his chest. As strange as it was, you liked to just listen to him breathing. It was a simple comfort, one that you could always rely on. 

Five was quick to shuffle you both into a more comfortable position, but he never quite relaxed. You understood why, missions are always draining, for everyone. It made sense that Five's brain was still waiting on another attacker.

You let yourself go limp, content to let your arms wrap loosely around Five’s middle with your ear pressed to his chest so you could listen to his heartbeat. Steady, rhythmic, unwavering. Just like him.

Five tucked your head under his chin, and slid his arms around your waist, mirroring the way you laid on him. You could feel his breathing brush past your hair, the feeling almost as soothing as when he’d been stroking your head earlier.

“Hey, Five? Can you stay with me tonight?”

“You know I can’t. We can’t risk getting caught.”

“I know, but just...until I fall asleep?”

Five took a deep breath, holding you just a little bit tighter.

“Of course.”

He wasn’t lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ben 🤝 Eight  
> These powers hurt and I’m going to be emo about it


	8. Growing Pains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The detox is a little more intense than Five expected, forcing him to deviate from the original plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah this chapter is porn, but this one isn’t meant to be skippable. You can skip it if you want but some things won’t make sense. Also we put a lot of work into this one so if it’s your thing, let us know.

The bathroom was dark. Any shreds of light that could have peeked through the curtains were blocked by a thick blanket of clouds. You don't mind the dark. 

What you do mind is the aching in your body and the twisting of your stomach. At least the brutal stabbing pain in your head had gone away. You tried to occupy your mind with stupid nonsense, counting the tiles on the floor and stacking ice packs on top of one another, but you were struggling to keep your head together. 

It seemed that the harder you tried to stay focused the more difficult the task became.

You tried to sleep, but the uncomfortable position you were stuck in combined with all of the terrible things your body was going through prevented that. Instead you just curled up by the faucet you where tethered to, and closed your eyes, letting your thoughts melt away into pained nonsense while you shook. 

You were starting to regret having all those ice packs in the bathtub with you.

Somehow, the cold was making you sweat more, and despite being freezing and shivering, you couldn’t stop feeling like you had the worst fever of your life. 

You were about to lose it, to start sobbing and scratching at your wrist where the metal of the handcuff dug into your skin. You were on the verge of breaking down the same way you did as a child, your mind splintering and your body lashing out against you. 

The smell of suddenly ionized air around you stopped it.

Five was back, in a flash of blue. 

“Shit, what the hell happened? It wasn’t supposed to get this bad so quickly! What the hell have you been on?!”

You shakily listed off as many of the fancy names for what Klaus’ “friends” had sold you as you could remember. The longer you went down the list, the more panicked Five looked. When you trailed off, you could have sworn you saw him shaking.

“That’s...way more than I thought. Ok, uh, give me a second, I need to get something.”

The few seconds he was gone felt like true hell. You were surprised he was willing to leave you alone for even that long, but you were even more surprised when he came back with a _very_ familiar bottle.

“What’s that for?”

“This withdrawal is gonna be worse than I expected, your body is way more dependent on this stuff than I thought. You need to get _something_ in you, or the shock may kill you on its own.”

You didn't have it in you to think of something funny to say about the irony of the situation, instead you just reached up for the bottle, surprised when Five pulled it away from you.

"You're shaking too hard, you'll drop the bottle if I let you hold it." He explained, unscrewing the cap. "Here, open your mouth."

"Heard that one before.” You mumbled, leaning forward and letting Five bring the bottle up to your lips. He held the bottle in one hand, and stroked your cheek with the other. He was an awful lot more affectionate now than he used to be. You're pretty fucking happy about it but you also wonder what he'd endured to change him in that way.

You got a little more than two shots worth of whiskey before Five took the bottle, taking a drink of his own. 

You traded the bottle back and forth, and even when your shaking had become nothing but a mild annoyance, Five still insisted on holding the bottle.

You drank in silence until about halfway through the bottle.

"So. Klaus." Five said after taking a sizeable drink. 

"What about him?" You asked. Your head was still swimming, struggling to keep a steady stream of thoughts.

“You and him. Together.”

“Oh.” It was all you could think to say. You’d been avoiding even thinking about having this conversation with Five, or any one of your siblings for that matter. You didn’t know how to even approach the topic, so you did the only thing your whiskey-riddled brain could think to make you do.

You burst into tears.

“I’m sorry, Five, I’m so sorry, I swear I never meant for any of this to happen, I just—“

Five cut you off, just slapping his hand over your mouth so you couldn’t continue. You licked his palm, and he withdrew it with a grimace, wiping it off on his shorts. 

“Don’t apologize.”

You nodded, not trusting yourself to keep your sobbing quiet if you opened your mouth to talk.

Five scooted closer to you, leaning on the edge of the tub so you could rest your head on his shoulder. He took another drink, and once again held the bottle out of your reach when you grabbed for it.

“I’m sorry too.”

“What for?”

“Leaving.”

"I know." you whispered, fearing that if you tried to speak you'd just end up crying harder. You tugged on Five’s arm, the one that was holding the bottle, and took a drink, and then another, and then a third one before Five gently pried the bottle out of your hands.

"I think you've had enough for now." Five said, setting the nearly empty bottle on the floor, just out of your reach. You nodded, and leaned forward to rest your head on his shoulder again.

"You have nothing to be sorry for." You said, the statement resolute and definitive despite your voice crackling from the alcohol and the tears. 

"I abandoned you." 

"Not on purpose!"

"My intentions don't matter. You needed me and I wasn't there." You felt him take a shaky breath and briefly wondered if he was crying. But you didn't have the energy to entertain that thought. Instead, you wrapped your arm around him and pulled him in as close as you could.

"I'd hug you with both arms but I kind of can't." You whispered, rattling your handcuffs. Five gives a weak laugh and slowly he wraps his arms around you as well, one hand in your hair and the other hesitantly stroking your back. "You know... this kind of reminds me of something." You muttered, struggling to cling to a memory from your childhood.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Do you remember that time we-" 

"Almost got caught sneaking up to the attic and had to hide in a bathroom? Yeah, I remember. I thought for sure,” Five chuckled, the alcohol buzz slurring his words slightly. “That mom was gonna catch us, thank god she didn’t bother checking behind the shower curtain or she would have found you.”

“It was so hard not laughing at you trying to explain why you were standing in the bathroom with the lights off in the middle of the night.”

“I had to tell her the lights hurt my eyes, Klaus and Ben harassed me with a flashlight for weeks afterwards!”

“I think it was worth it though. Being able to just exist together, you know?”

“It’s always been worth it.”

You leaned over and kissed him. The taste of whiskey, coffee, and peanut butter flooded your senses. With the door locked and most of your family out of the house, you let yourself indulge in him, reveling in the feeling of his lips and tongue on yours.

You were only shocked out of your stupor by the noise of the bottle clattering over when Five sat up to hold your head in his hands again, guiding your face to turn, giving him a better angle.

You let him lead, as you always did. God you missed kissing him. You didn't think you'd ever be able to get used to the feeling, the tangible physical feeling of Five being _home_.

You clutched his uniform jacket, pulling him in closer, closer still, as if you were trying to fuse. You kind of wished you could do that. At least then you would never have to worry about losing Five again.

He seemed to be enjoying your company as much as you were enjoying his, if the soft sighs and wandering hands were anything to go by.

He traced around your collar bones without breaking the kiss, giving you goosebumps. When was the last time Five had touched you like this? You vaguely recalled the last time, only a few nights before he had disappeared from your life entirely. 

Five broke away from you, and for a moment you feared that he was going to leave. Before you had a chance to verbalize that concern he was kissing your neck. You buried your free hand in his hair, always trying to pull him closer.

He kissed you frantically, like he too was afraid that he could disappear at any second. The kisses were broken up by the occasional teasing nip at your neck, but when Five migrated from your neck to your collar bones you practically melted in his hands.

By then the withdrawal shakes had subsided, but with Five’s hands tracing over your throat and shoulders, the shivers returned full-force. Eventually, those hands slid to your waist, and before you knew what was happening, or even had a chance to open your eyes, Five had pulled you into his energy field and zapped the two of you into his room. 

Your back hit his mattress, and you collapsed on top of his comforter with him still hovering over you. 

Five pulled back, sitting up on his knees, and you whined at the loss of contact. You were about to pull him back by the lapels until you saw him shucking his blazer off and unceremoniously chucking the thing onto the floor. 

You relaxed on his pillows, tilting your head to one side so Five would have better access to your neck. He got the hint, and the moment his hands were free, they returned to your neck, fingers clasped around the back of your head while his thumbs traced over the underside of your jaw. 

His mouth attached itself to a spot on your throat, and you could hear him sucking a hickey onto you like he was trying to suck out your soul. You wondered for a moment if he’d look the same as you remembered under those perfectly pressed schoolboy shorts of his. 

“Fuck, I missed this...you have no idea how much it sucks having to go through puberty alone.”

Five nipped the fresh hickey, then placed a quick kiss over it before sitting up. Your clothes were removed much more efficiently than you had expected. Somewhere in the whirlwind of kisses and bites and otherwise deviant over-the-clothes touching, Five had managed to rid you of your shirt _and_ your bra.

As much as you desired the feeling of him inside you as soon as possible, you knew how important this moment was. You wanted to savor it, even if the memory would end up clouded in the haze of apocalypse panic and addiction recovery.

You tugged on Five's hair, guiding him up and away from the new hickey he was leaving on your breast. Five (never one to enjoy being denied) growled, but you sat up anyways.

"Let me just do this one thing Five, please?" You begged, giving him your best kicked puppy eyes. He scoffed in false annoyance and pinched your side but complied, leaning back and awaiting your next move.

You were kind of surprised by his shock when you started yanking at his shorts.

"You've certainly gotten more forward since the last time I saw you." Five teased, clearly trying to ease him way into the situation.

"Oh I'm sorry, did you _not_ want me give you a welcoming present?" You retorted, pulling away from him. You would never _really_ tease him like that, but his methods of regaining control were definitely worth the empty threat. 

"A present huh? For little old me?" He mocked.

"Mhm!”

Five let you switch places with him, leaning back on the bed while keeping his hand cupped on your cheek. It was a surprisingly tender motion, all things considered. His thumb traced over your bottom lip, then pressed past it into your mouth. You readily accepted it, happy to give him a taste of what you were about to do.

“Well, get to it then.”

You flashed him a wild grin, and got to work undoing his shorts, tugging them over his knees with his underwear. He looked just as beautiful as you remembered, with his face flushed and red, his sweater-vest and button up crumpled, and the little tuft of hair at the base of his cock unruly and unkempt. 

Despite the 45 years of growing up he did without you, he still took care of himself like a teenager. 

He also _sounded_ like he was still some middle school virgin when your tongue flicked over his tip.

“I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you moan like that.”

“Shit, yeah, sorry, I’m... _ah_ , still not used to this body. Everything’s just...way more _intense_.”

"Don't apologise, it's hot." You said, before taking the head of his cock into your mouth. Despite your insistence that the sounds he made were nothing short of panty soaking, he still bit down on his lip to keep quiet.

"Fuck," he growled. You tried not to smile as you focused on sucking him off, but the noises he made combined with the twitching of his hips were just too good. You didn't mind it much when Five inevitably took control of the situation, tangling his hands in your hair to keep you in place while he thrusted into your mouth.

"God you're incredible." He groaned. "I almost forgot how fucking amazing this is."

You pulled back to give him a sweet smile, which he returned in kind before grabbing you by the hip and flipping you over, pinning you down to the mattress.

You finally allowed Five to unbutton your shorts, yanking them down around your ankles. The sight of you in your wet panties stopped Five in his tracks. He took a moment to just look at you, to see you needy and splayed put before him. When he snapped out of his daze he was already pulling down your panties.

Five swallowed, audibly, and you were certain if he hadn’t done so he would have been drooling. He leaned down to kiss your collarbone, then your chest, then trailing down your stomach until he reached your clit. 

You reached for his hair, but barely managed to card through his bangs once before he took hold of your wrists and pinned them to your side. 

Without warning, Five buried his tongue in your pussy all at once, the sudden sensation of something wet and warm moving inside you causing you to moan out. Five chuckled darkly, and kept up his movements. 

He was sloppy, unpracticed, and uncharacteristically messy. You could feel his spit mixing with your natural lube and dripping down your thigh. 

You whined, trying to get more contact with him while he worked you over, but when you pushed your hips up into his mouth, he pulled back. 

He had a lovestruck expression when he lifted his face out from between your legs, his eyes wild and dilated like he was high, a stray string of glossy clear liquid connecting the corner of his mouth to your body, the same manic grin he had when he won fights tracing over his lips.

Five gave you a dark smile, the kind that made your knees weak. You didn't have the focus or the willpower to respond coherently. Instead you just whined and speed your legs further apart, begging for him to keep touching you.

Five pulled his sweater vest up over his head and tossed it to the side, then began unbuttoning his shirt. The process appeared to become too tedious for Five to deal with so instead of unbuttoning all of them he chose to remove them entirely. He grabbed the middle of his shirt and pulled the fabric back, sending the buttons flying away from him.

With the two of you both naked and dizzy from whiskey and love, you were less than graceful in positioning yourselves to finally, after all these years, have the sweet reunion sex you never thought you would get to have.

Though it took a few tries, the feeling of Five entering you was nothing short of euphoric.

It took no more than three thrusts before you could feel him twitching and spilling his seed inside you. You were almost disappointed when he pulled him half-hard cock out of you, until you saw him spit on his hand and immediately start working himself hard again. 

“Trust me, I’ve been through this before on my own, give it two minutes and we’re going again.”

“Promise you’ll last longer this time?”

“Promise. This time, and the next time, and the one after. At least.”

You laughed and moaned softly, relieved that the moment wasn’t over yet, and thoroughly enjoying the feeling of Five’s non-dominant hand playing with one of your breasts. 

After a moment of you letting Five explore your body, his other hand found its way to your folds, and used his fingers to open them up, replacing them with his erection again. 

“That was fast. I think I like this body.”

“I will admit,” Five snarked, sheathing himself inside you again. “it _does_ have its perks.”

You reached up and pulled Five's head down to yours so that you could kiss him. He buried himself inside you completely and kissed you like it was the most important thing he'd ever done. You loved it, loved him, loved the universe for giving him back to you. 

You were consumed by overwhelming affection, which made the feeling of Five's tongue in your mouth and cock inside of you all the more wonderful.

You whined when his fingers found your clit. Even after all these years, he still knew how to turn you into a wordless trembling mess.

Another perk of Five's new body, he had the energy to move _fast_. 

When you were young it was always a gradual buildup in speed, but Five was older now, and he knew exactly what your body could take, and which parts of you were especially sensitive.

He held you by the hips, and not particularly gently. 

You thought to yourself how incredible it was to have sex, _loudly_ , with your brother in your childhood home. 

Hearing Five moan out loud without the danger of getting caught by your father made you wetter than you'd like to admit. The old mattress creaked with the speed of Five's thrusts. The sound of Five's dick sliding in and out of your pussy must have been loud enough to hear from in the hall.

You didn’t care. If anyone else was in the house, they’d have to just suck it up and deal. The only thing that mattered was that Five was home, that he still loved you, and that he was taking 45 years of loneliness and rage, along with the hormones from his newly discovered second puberty, out on your body. 

Even if Five was still alternating between biting his lip and sinking his teeth into your shoulder to silence himself, he was still growling like a wolf and letting the occasional shuddering moan slip out. You didn’t bother holding back, allowing yourself to moan and whimper every time he slammed into you hard enough that you could feel his pubes tickle your clit. 

He didn’t even bother pulling out when he came a second time, his pace just barely stuttering as he frantically nipped at your collarbone and sucked hickeys into your skin. 

You couldn’t tell if the wet feeling on your neck was Five’s spit, sweat, or tears, and frankly you didn’t care.

Five's touch lit your whole body on fire. You haven't felt this good since... Since the last time you'd had sex with Five.

He rubbed your clit while he recovered and you were nearly ready to burst. Feeling him go hard while he was still resting inside you drove you wild. 

He was really here, and he was here and he was making you cum and he was kissing you like he needed to to breathe. Your cunt spasmed around him and you were reduced to screaming moans and shaking legs.

Five didn't give you any time to recover from your orgasm, continuing to bury himself in you and fucking you as hard as he could. Which was _shockingly_ hard. You cried out, too overstimulated to whine at Five to slow down. 

Before you knew it you were cumming again, gushing around Fives cock. He just continued to drill you, saying filthy things in your ear.

“Shit, you look even better than I remember. Do you know long I spent dreaming about this? I lost track of the amount of times I touched myself thinking about fucking you like this.”

You whimpered, your mind too clouded from the alcohol and overstimulation to manage any coherent thought.

“I, god... _fuck_!” Five barked, apparently giving up on talking in favor of pressing his mouth to yours, the clash of teeth and tongues just adding to foggy haze in your mind.

Five drank your breath like lifeblood, his hands grasping at your waist, hips, thighs, wherever he could find a place to grab onto you and manhandle your body into the position he wanted. You gladly let him, relishing in his soft fingers squeezing your body wherever they roamed. 

And that was saying nothing about the marks he was leaving behind.

It seemed that every time Five came he only fucked harder the next round. You were so delirious by your third orgasm that you weren't even sure if you were having one. Five's loving, _lustful_ expression made you melt from the inside out.

By the time Five's fourth orgasm hit him you were dead to the world, only existing in this bed, aching and sticky and madly in love.

"FUCK, I love you!" He screamed, entirely unconcerned about whoever may hear.

With that deceleration, Five’s whole body shivered and he collapsed, resting on top of you for a moment before pressing a chaste kiss to your forehead and rolling over onto the bed next to you. 

You struggled to keep your eyes open, too exhausted and delirious to think. You just grasped for Five’s hands, pulling on them to wrap yourself in his arms. He readily accepted, gently squeezing your middle and leaning into you to curl his body around yours. The height difference made it a little awkward, but the soft, soothing sound of Five regaining his breath and the feeling of his hands tracing over the curvature of your stomach and waist more than made up for it. 

“I love you, Five.”

“I know. Go to sleep, you’ve gotta be tired.”

“Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?”

“Yeah. I’ll even wake up with you this time.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Literally the only time Five can actually say the worlds “I love you” is when he’s sloppy drunk, riding the emotional high from being reunited with his one true love, and when he’s in the throes of second puberty, dick-deep in said Love.


	9. March 23rd, 2006

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus shares his favorite healthy coping strategies with you, or rather his lack of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spinoff of this fic except it’s just 250,000 words of Ben trying to stop his brother and sister from having sex.

It was getting bad again. You didn't seem to notice it but Klaus did. He could see it in the hollows of your cheeks, and hear it in the way your voice shook. 

All things considered, it had been a pretty uneventful day. But you looked... sort of scary, to be honest. It worried Klaus to see you smoking through a pack of cigarettes like you did. 

Your fingers twitched, flicking ash onto the window sill. When you leaned forward to wipe it off he could see the drying tear streaks on your cheeks. You swatted the ash off the windowsill and pressed your fingers against the cold glass of the window.

Klaus watched you stare out at the snow for a bit longer than he should have.

You weren’t usually so silent, and that terrified Klaus. He hated the silence, to the point where he even preferred when you got extra clingy with him. When you would pull Klaus’s flask out of his hands and drain it until he wrenched it back out of your shaking fingers. He preferred when you would cry yourself to sleep in his bed, when he and Ben would have to take turns holding you and running to get you cups of water, so you wouldn’t die of dehydration or wake up screaming.

At least when you cried, you accepted the hugs and told them what was wrong. 

Or, rather, you would tell them what was wrong and accept _Klaus’s_ hugs, now that the third member of your disastrous little trio couldn’t really touch you.

But when you sat in silence and stared out the window for hours, dirtying the sill and burning your hand with the hot ashes, it felt to him like you were isolating yourself, just not as literally as when Reginald would lock you up during meltdowns. 

It made him feel helpless.

But he would never tell you that. So instead he sat with you, lit your cigarettes and waited, hoping that you'd tell him what was wrong already instead of just sitting around making yourself miserable. 

You'd just lit your seventh cigarette when the dam broke. The tears started up silently but by the time you'd smoked down to the filter you were sobbing, burying your face in your hands.

Klaus pulled you towards him, and you didn't resist. You clung to him, trying to stifle your sobs and dry your tears.

"Nothing works anymore, Klaus. Everything hurts all the time and I don't know to make it stop!" You cried.

With his arms wrapped awkwardly around your shoulders, Klaus shushed you quietly, reminding you to cry _into_ his shirt to muffle the sounds.

Ben, who just couldn’t stop _trying_ , even after death, caught Klaus’s eye when he held your head to his chest.

“I know what you’re thinking, don’t you dare do it.”

“Oh, piss off.”

“Is that Ben? Is he here?” You asked.

“Yep.” Mumbled Klaus, not breaking eye contact with the aforementioned ghost, holding an annoyed scowl on his face as he did. “And he’s being really annoying as usual.”

You laughed but it was a hollow gesture. 

"Hi Ben.” you said. 

"Hi there." Ben replied, although you couldn't hear him. He always replied when you spoke to him.

Klaus stroked your hair as you caught your breath, still clinging to him as if you thought he'd disappear out from underneath you. 

"Klaus, I'm serious. Don't." Ben insisted. Klaus nearly took it to heart until you spoke up again.

"I just want it to stop hurting so much." You muttered, and poor Klaus decided then that he'd ignore all of Ben's demands to see you relax again.

Klaus never could stand it when you were sad. Everyone else in the house was so good at hiding it when they wanted to die, seeing you break so easily just made him sad too.

“If you really need something stronger, I might have some.”

You nodded feverishly, nearly falling off of the bed trying to give Klaus enough room to do...whatever he was planning.

With you eagerly watching Klaus digging under his bed, you almost didn’t feel the pain when you dug into the ash of your lit cigarette, too enthralled with the idea of something new to numb yourself with to notice your fingertips mashing the burnt end of the thing into the sill.

Klaus procured a bag of little white pills from the stash under his bed. You’d seen it before, a fist-sized hollow in his mattress with a bed slat keeping whatever he had in there tucked safely away. 

You’d never seen those before though.

“What’s that?”

“Xanax. It’s really soft feeling, kinda like cotton candy.”

“That doesn’t make any sense at all.”

"It will. It's a good feeling, promise." He said, twisting the cap off the bottle.

"You've got to be kidding." Ben said, from the other side of the room. "You are not about to give our sister actual drugs." 

Klaus ignored him yet again and took your hand, turning your palm up and shaking two little white pills out onto your hand. You didn't hesitate to take them, no water or anything. 

"I don't feel any different." You said.

"Yeah, because you just took it!" Klaus teased, feeling unbelievably relieved to see that you had regained the energy to scowl at him. "Here, come sit and we'll wait for it together." Klaus tossed a pill (or three) into his own mouth and sat down on the bed with you.

You readily scooted up next to him, the pair of you resting on his headboard with your limbs haphazardly tangled together. Klaus ruffled your hair, the action mimicking a kid in a store running his hands over a rack of soft clothes. You leaned into his hold, and he kissed the top of your head like one might do to a sad puppy. 

“You listen to me, ok? It’s all gonna be fine. These things are gonna kick in and then you don’t have to cry anymore, alright?”

“Alright.”

“See? And, bonus points, you’re like...guaranteed to feel good cuz these are your first ones, _and_ you get to sit here and snuggle up all night.”

“I dunno...”

“Oh _come on_!” He whined. “You literally know for a fact that I’m telling the truth!”

“I know, I know, but I mean...if you believe it and you’re wrong, you’re still not _technically_ lying!”

“Shh, shh, don’t get paranoid on me now. I’ve got a handle on this, promise. Don’t you trust me?”

"Of course I do, Klaus." You whisper, and he was struck by just how certain you sounded. _Of course_ you trusted him, _of course_. Like it was so painfully obvious that he shouldn’t have even bothered asking. 

"Then just relax, okay? Everything's good now. No more sad ladies in my bedroom." He said, pointedly ignoring the fact that Ben is practically fuming. 

You laughed and it sounded a little less hollow this time.

"Thank you." You mumbled, voice muffled by Klaus's chest. You wrapped your arms around his waist, in a way far too affectionate to not make his heart twist in ways that it shouldn't.

Klaus had sort of already accepted his attraction to you. Sure you were _technically_ his sister but that never got in the way of his feelings towards you. Ben was unfortunately all too aware of Klaus's... affection for you. Needless to say, he did not approve of it.

“That’s disgusting.” Said Ben, shooting Klaus a disapproving glare with his chin resting on his hand. Klaus gave him a look, not bothering to dignify the remark with an actual retort.

“She’s our _sister_.” Continued Ben. “If I hadn’t caught you being gross over her pictures myself, I would still be in denial. I mean, you’ve done a lot of stupid shit in your life, but this really takes the stupid shit cake.”

Klaus didn’t get the chance to respond, you tightened your hold around him and let out a soft groan, like you’d just been woken up.

“I get what you mean.”

“Hmm?”

“Cotton candy.”

“Hahah, yeah! There you go, now you’re getting it. It’s nice isn’t it?”

You smiled, and giggled, the moonlight outside glinting off the tear tracks on your cheeks. The sound of you being happy for the first time in months did _not_ help Klaus’s poor, tugged heartstrings, but they also just made him never want to stop. 

Whatever it took, he wanted more of that sound.

You were more at ease than you'd been in a long time. Between the drugs and the warmth of Klaus tucked up against you, your pain, your constant, _incessant_ pain, finally dulled.

"Wow." You whispered, eyes squeezed shut."I totally get why you do this now."

Klaus grinned and rested his head on top of yours. 

"Oh my dear sister, you have _no idea_."

Ben gagged.

"Stop flirting with our sister!"

“Will you shut up?”

“What? I didn’t say anything!”

“No not you, sorry, Ben is being a real asshole.”

You followed Klaus’s line of sight, staring hard at where you approximated Ben’s face would be. 

“Shush.”

“No.” Said Ben, sticking his tongue out. Klaus barked out a laugh, startling you, and just ran his hand up and down your back a couple times to calm you down.

“Don’t get jumpy, just stay relaxed. Trust me it’ll make everything a whole lot better.”

You nodded and buried your face in Klaus’s shirt. He hugged you closer in turn, taking the opportunity to nuzzle his nose in your hair and, while keeping eye contact with Ben, sniff it. 

Ben pointed at his mouth and dramatically gagged.

"Cut it out, that tickles!" You squirmed against Klaus, goosebumps rising on your arms as you did so. Klaus continued to nuzzle you and breathe down your neck and make you giggle like a child. The blatant flirting made Ben scowl at the pair of you. 

"Come on Klaus, now you're just doing it to annoy me." Ben said, folding his arms over his chest and giving Klaus a stern look.

"You're just jealous you can't get in on the snuggle pile!" Klaus said.

"Ben?" You asked, head tilted so cutely that he could hardly stand to look at you.

Klaus grabbed you by the chin and turned your head a few inches to the side.

“No, he’s over there, _now_ you’re looking at him!”

Ben waved.

“She can’t see you, dipshit, so stop waving like some awkward nerd at the prom.”

You laughed again, trying your best to stuff down the giddy little noises the drugs were helping you make. 

You waved back, and just for a moment it _almost_ seemed like you could actually see Ben. It was...honestly really unnerving, to see your stare focusing just a millimeter or two away from his eyes.

“Great, now that you indulged your creepy little incest fantasy, can you stop being gross and help her come down?”

“What? What no, I’m not gonna make her come down, she’s gonna stay _up_ , with me!”

“That’s what she said!” You snorted, prompting Klaus to laugh with you. Ben just sighed.

“Oh come _on_ Benny boy, you used to have a sense of humor!”

“Yeah, and then you started trying to sleep with our sister in front of me!”

"I miss you a lot, Ben." You blurted, unprompted, making both boys turn their focus to you. You had a hard time keeping your eyes open, the cotton candy feeling in your head was making you sleepy, and for the first time in a very long time, you felt at ease. 

Neither Klaus nor Ben could find a way to respond to that. Klaus opted to trace shapes on your arms instead of speaking. 

Ben, poor Ben, wanted to tell you he felt the same way. He wanted to tell you a lot of things. But the only way he could communicate with you was through Klaus, and there were some things that he would just be too embarrassed to say in front of him.

Not that it was anything _weird_ if course! Ben would never think anything weird about you, his sister. His sister who was beautiful and clever, even now, even as a shell of the girl she used to be. You his sister, and the only person besides Klaus who still spoke to him. 

No way would he ever think anything but perfectly platonic thoughts about you. Even when Klaus talked about how soft your lips looked, and when he had to watch the two of you hold each other for hours on end.

He _especially_ wasn’t going to think thoughts like the ones Klaus seemed to have every other night nowadays. As much as he used to laugh about it, Ben was really starting to hate how shameless Klaus could be. 

Nope. No way, no how. 

It wasn’t jealousy, he told himself, it was disgust. Watching Klaus let you cuddle up to him, him brushing your hair out with his fingers, and making you laugh, that wasn’t something to be jealous of. 

The flipping feeling in his stomach was just pure, undiluted nausea, nothing more.

Even if Ben was dick-deep in a bucket of denial, it still hurt to see your pupils dilated and unfocused, with your clammy hands twitching and grasping handfuls of the fabric of Klaus’s clothes.

But you needed him, and as much as he hated it, Klaus needed him too. For as infuriatingly self-destructive and indulgent as he could be, and as angry as Ben was at him for dragging you down with him, Klaus was still his brother, and his best friend. 

You fell asleep in Klaus’s bed that night, for the hundredth time since Five had disappeared. Klaus whispered to you in your sleep, promising that no matter what happened, he’d make sure you could smile. Ben waited until the morning sun was rising, when the light bounced off the perfect, glittering snow outside, right into the room. He promised he’d take care of you both, as much as he could.

You didn’t hear either of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> . Ben 🤝 Klaus  
> cAn i SmElL yOuR hAiR?


	10. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luther and Allison find some very compromising information about Grace, and of course they drag Five into it with them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Luther Hargreeves, himbo extraordinaire. If you’re a fan of Luther don’t worry, we’re not vilifying him. This is a pro-Luther space, he is simply a dumbass who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and we cannot fault him for that.

Five wasn’t sure how exactly he’d managed to forget how pleasant this kind of thing was. It was nice, he thought, to be sitting in the dark, with his nose buried in your hair, listening to your breathing. Maybe he’d never truly been able to experience it before, always getting stuck worrying about being caught. He’d always been too busy thinking about the potential consequences to just lay there and enjoy the feeling of your skin on his, soft blankets draped over your naked bodies.

He was very happy to be experiencing it now.

He’d never gotten the chance to fall asleep with you before. One of you always had to stay awake, and it was usually him. You could drift off in his arms when he’d blinked into your room to hang out at night, but he always had to be alert, ready to blink out if someone’s footsteps got too close to your door.

Finally being able to wake up next to you was downright transcendent. His mild hangover, the apocalypse hanging over his head, the fact that you’d nearly destroyed your life in the years he’d been gone, the fact that he was gone for so long at all, Klaus’s unfortunate involvement in your already-complicated dynamic, and the sound of the door creaking open giving him a headache aside, Five was feeling pretty good about his situation.

Wait. The sound of the door creaking open?

Five's eyes snapped open, managing to roll over just in time to make eye contact with Luther, then Allison. 

"Fuck's sake, did no one ever teach you to knock?" Five hissed, yanking the blankets up to cover himself, and you. “Why are you here?”

“Grace, uh...might have...with dad, we...what are you two doing?”

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with, now get out!" 

"No, no, no we're not dropping this. Five, did you two-?"

"Don't ask questions you aren't ready to hear the answers to."

Luther stood in the doorway in shock until Allison, apparently fed up with whatever epiphany was going through his head, tugged him out of the way.

“Listen, something happened and we need to talk, it’s urgent.”

“Urgent enough that you couldn’t spare the two seconds it takes to make sure your presence would be tolerable at the moment?”

“Actually, yes.” Allison shot back, scoffing as she did so. Five just sighed in response.

“Fine, fine, just...give me a minute to make myself decent. Shut the door on your way out, and for God’s sake be quiet.”

Allison nodded, gently shooing Luther out of the doorframe and closing the thing behind him. Five waited until their footsteps trailed down the hall, then silently slid out of the tiny bed and repositioned the blanket around you.

He got dressed quickly, keeping an eye on you the whole time. Your dark eye circles had already started lightening up, and the thought that he was involved in that change made Five’s heart seize up.

He kept his shoes off until the last second, when he closed the door behind him. Allison and Luther hovered a little ways down the hall, looking concerned. 

Somehow, the fact that they seemed concerned for _him_ , out of all of the siblings annoyed Five more than the interruption.

"I hope for your sake that you actually have something important to tell me." Five snapped, readjusting his tie. He hadn't bothered to untie it last night, and the it was pulled just a little too tight for comfort.

Luther and Allison led Five down to their father's little surveillance room, playing him the tape they'd found of his death.

"Don't you think it's suspicious that while dad died, mom just stood there and watched?" 

"Luther, if you're suggesting that mom killed the old man, you're insane. We don't have time to play Clue with dad. We have more important things to be focusing on." Five insisted as he turned to leave, ready to go lay back down with you and pretend that things were fine for at least another hour. Allison caught his arm as he turned away.

"Still not letting you off the hook, Five." She said, tugging him back. They both knew that Five could easily just blink away but it wasn't like he could avoid the questions forever. Might as well get it over with. "I could have sworn that she and _Klaus_ had something going on...?"

"They did?" Luther, still trying to wrap his head around what he'd seen upstairs, was in absolutely no place to be receiving news that not only did you and Five have an... _intimate relationship_ , but so did you and Klaus.

“Jesus Christ Luther, get with the program already, and don’t act all innocent, we’ve all seen you two eye-fucking over the dinner table, so just...don’t.”

“Ok, so, wait...” Said Allison, deflecting the statement. “I could have sworn she and Klaus had a thing, but now you’re telling us that she’s uh...sleeping with you? You’ve only been back for like a day!”

“We’ve been _sleeping together_ , as you so hesitantly put it, since we were thirteen.”

“Oh.” Said Luther, not fully understanding the implications.

“Then what’s Klaus got to do with all this?” Asked Allison.

“Klaus isn’t—I mean, he’s _just_ her dealer! Really, it’s Klaus, it’s not like he actually _cares_ about her, or _anything_ for that matter!”

“This is really going to make family reunions complicated...” Luther mumbled, yet again breaking Five’s train of though.

“Listen, Five, I’m...I mean, we’re _happy_ for you, for both of you, but...isn’t this going to make things weird?” Allison asked, struggling to keep her perfectly-manicured thumbnail out of her mouth.

“You say that like this family isn’t already the most fucked up conglomerate of freaks and weirdos in existence.”

"Oh my God," Luther said to himself, finally understanding the situation. "Five, you can't- Absolutely not, you two can't-" He stopped short of actually _speaking aloud_ what he was condemning. 

"Well, thank you for finally joining the conversation Luther, your input's been _so helpful_." Five said.

"That's disgusting. We're—she's your _sister_ , Five!"

"You of all people have no right to be judging our situation." Five snapped at Luther. Allison shook her head and sighed.

"Since we were thirteen, huh?" She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Don’t give me that. You know damn well the two of you would have fucked in _your_ secret fort if you’d been left alone long enough to get away with it.”

“Isn’t it...you know, a little awkward, with you _like this_?”

“Like what?”

Allison waved her hand, gesturing vaguely to Five’s entire body.

“Allison, I’m a fifty eight year old assassin who can time travel and teleport. I spent the better part of the night playing ‘daddy’ for a codependent junkie who’s been in love with me since we were kids. Literally any possible action any of us could take would be _awkward_.”

“Wait hold on.” Interrupted Luther. “She’s sleeping with _Klaus_ too?!”

“I suddenly regret entertaining this conversation at all.”

"No, hold on I'm curious too. How _does_ Klaus factor into all of this?"

"I told you, he's just her dealer!" Five insisted. All these questions were really starting to fluster him.

"Five, anybody with eyes can see that there's more going on between them than just that. I mean, they haven't left each others side since they moved out." Allison argued.

"You have no idea what you're talking about." Five snapped, turning to walk past her and go back upstairs. Unfortunately for Five, Allison decided to make an exception to her own "no using powers" rule.

"I heard a rumor you told us the whole story."

Five looked shocked, then panicked, then settled into a look of resentful apathy. 

“I love her. Nobody can love her like I do, including Klaus.”

Allison and Luther were stunned. This was _Five_ who was talking. Cold, calculating, impersonal, genius Five. Five, who could barely get through two minutes of conversation without insulting his conversation partner. Five, who would sooner tear the beating heart out of a man’s chest than admit out loud that he actually _cared_ about something. 

And yet here he was, with his barriers stripped, professing his undying love for a girl he hadn’t even _seen_ in, apparently, decades.

“I said ‘the whole story’, Five.”

Five huffed, the annoyance and barely-concealed embarrassment in the action telling Allison that he was already out from under her control.

“That _is_ the _whole story_.”

"What about Klaus?" Allison prompted. 

"Christ, would you stop asking about Klaus?"

"I'll stop asking when you start explaining! Don't make me rumor you again." Allison threatened, although, they both knew that she probably wouldn't get the chance to before Five blinked out, finally getting sick enough of this conversation to storm off like he always does at the end of any conversation.

"Klaus is a complication that I'm working on taking care of."

"Wait, Five, are you gonna murder Klaus?" Luther cut in.

Before Five could tell Luther just how stupid he was for thinking that, he was cut off by a noise from upstairs.

Screaming.

Someone upstairs was screaming.

Five was gone before Allison and Luther could even comprehend the sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, an interpersonal problem that Five CAN’T solve with murder!


	11. April 11th, 2002

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mornings are always so stressful, especially when there’s things to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to google what those humming white corkscrew-shaped lightbulbs were called for this chapter. I regret nothing.

Sunlight, generally, is considered more comforting than the harsh glow of a buzzing CFL lamp. Five, however, much preferred the sterile white of his desk lamp to the glaring radiation of direct sun. Partly because a lot of sunlight isn’t exactly comfortable when you’re wearing three layers and training to fight, and partly because if he could hear his lamp buzzing, it meant everyone else around him was quiet.

And partly because it was a uniquely pleasant experience to be siting at his desk with the window open, with a sky full of stars and a perfect view of the courtyard at his disposal, being able to glance over at his bed and see you peacefully sleeping away.

It wasn't often that he could do that, so he treasured the sight. The corner of the room where you slept was dark but Five had no trouble spotting you curled up in a blanket and drooling on his pillow. You looked so at ease- another rare sight that Five relished in.

You'd fallen asleep nearly half an hour ago, but Five had only just sat down at his desk. He spent more time than he'd like to admit just holding you and watching you sleep. 

For a while he sat at his desk and read, often sneaking a peak at you, nestled up against his pillows. The very sight of you was so captivating that Five hadn't even heard the sound of his family coming down the hall.

He relished the opportunity to smile. A tiny, halfway upturned corner of his lip just barely betraying his facade. He’d barely managed to pry his eyes off of you and get back to his book when the sound of one, two, three soft knocks on the door made his blood run cold. Grace’s smiling face normally gave him some sense of familiarity, but this time it just made him panic.

“Good morning, Five! Please wake up and get dressed, your father would like you and the other children to go to his office as quickly as possible!”

Five was about to rush her out of the room as quickly as possible, begging to whatever god would listen to him to let Grace miss the sight of you snuggled under his covers. 

But things don’t ever go well for Five, do they?

Luther peeked over Grace’s shoulder with an excitable look on his face, though it morphed into confusion and annoyance when he caught sight of you.

“Isn’t it against the rules to hang out in each other’s rooms?”

The sound of voices stirred you and all hope was lost. You rubbed your eyes sleepily and upon seeing your mother and siblings all gathered in the doorway went wide eyed and snapped up into a sitting position.

"What's- mom what do- I wasn't..." You stumbled over yourself, half awake and incapable of forming a coherent thought.

From Grace's other side Five spotted Klaus peeking into the room, with Diego not far behind him. And of course to make matters worse Klaus decided to squeeze past Grace and into Five’s bedroom, plopping down on the bed next to you.

Klaus tossed his arm over your shoulders and mumbled at you with a very forced casual tone. You couldn’t hear what he was saying, you were too busy trying to find an excuse for why you’d been asleep in Five’s bed before breakfast. That, and trying to prevent yourself from having a heart attack. 

Diego pushed into the room, very purposefully shoving _Luther_ aside, instead of ducking under Grace’s elbow. 

Luther remained in the doorway, and Allison hung back, leaning on the windowsill just down the hall. Vanya was nowhere to be seen, but if the soft melody emanating from another room was anything to go by, she wasn’t in any danger. 

Diego looked at Five, with his otherwise well-hidden fluster and panic showing in his eyes, and the red blush on his ears. Diego looked over at you, shaking like a terrified kitten despite Klaus’s normally comforting hold. You could practically see the gears turning in his head as his brain finally processed the potentially less-than-savory implications of the scene before him.

“So...what’s going on in here?”

"Nothing!" You and Five said in tandem. 

"Nothing," Five insisted again in a less frantic tone. He wasn't sure who he was more angry at- his family for interrupting one of his rare moments of peace, or himself for not preventing it.

" _Nothing_ you say?" Klaus teased. "Are you sure about that?" He nudged your shoulder. Normally when Klaus teased you you weren't afraid to fire back, but you were too distracted by the look Diego was giving you to think of a reply.

Your mind raced for something, _anything_ to say to make everyone just stop looking at you and forget about all of this. You tried to speak, to buy yourself some more time to think of what to tell them but you simply couldn't force the words out of your mouth.

Five swallowed hard, something he only did when he was about to make a very high risk move. It concerned you, though you’d never let him know it did, that he was doing that. Particularly because you’d only ever seen him do that before when he was about to add another criminal to his body count. 

“She had a nightmare.” Five said, his steady voice sounding almost artificial. “She couldn’t sleep, and we...we didn’t want to bother dad so late, so I let her sleep here.”

“Oh?” Klaus said, looking like he’d just read the _juiciest_ gossip about himself in one of Allison’s magazines. “And what, pray tell, has been plaguing our dear sister here?”

“I don’t know! She fell asleep before she could tell me!”

“Guys, c’mon.” Said Luther, in his Leader voice. For a moment you thought maybe he was coming to your defense. “It doesn’t matter why she’s in here, it’s still against the rules.”

Your stomach turned. If Luther was this pressed about it there was no way he wasn't going to tell dad. This was not good. This was very very bad and you were so so _so_ stupid to let this happen! You thought of Five being punished for this and you could hear your own heartbeat picking up.

You looked back at Diego, who was leaning back against a book shelf with his arms crossed over his chest. _A nightmare?_ He mouthed to you, careful to hide the action from all of your siblings. You nodded back to him, subtle enough that nobody else would notice. You hated the way he looked at you when he asked. He was doing that awful thing where he pretended not to be interested in all the drama around him, even though you could so clearly see it was bothering him. 

He looked so...confused. Confused in a way that made you feel like you had to apologize to him. You opened your mouth to respond, but yet again you failed to produce any sort of reply. You tried again and again to say _something_ but you failed every attempt. The look on Diego's face while he watched you stutter and trip over your own thoughts was even worse than the sad confused look he had worn earlier.

Concern, fear, and a type of sadness you couldn’t place.

You, Five, and Diego looked at each other. Five seemed torn between casting a comforting look at you, and a challenging one at Diego. Luther and Grace remained blissfully unaware of the tension in the room, while Klaus and Allison simply seemed to not care. 

You were ready to apologize, to fake remorse for breaking the rules (you didn’t, you only regretted getting caught), and to hope Luther was fooled into believing you’d learned your lesson. Maybe, just maybe, if you made a big enough deal of it, you could convince your more obedient siblings to cover for you, just this once. 

You were ready to beg forgiveness, degrading as it was.

But the thump of perfectly polished shoes and the clack of a cane on the wooden floor stopped you.

Luther stepped back, Grace lowered her eyes, and you and the rest of your siblings fell into a guilty silence at the sight of your father’s agitated face.

“Number Eight? Number Five? What is the meaning of this?”

You withdrew from Klaus quickly, scrambling to untangle yourself from the blankets and stand. 

You'd had nightmares of this exact scenario. Usually this was the part where you woke up, cold and alone in your room, but relieved. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t a dream.

"Five said she had a nightmare so-" Luther was cut off before he could finish explaining the situation.

"Number One." Reginald said, and Luther fell quiet. Your fathers gaze locked on to you, and you thought you might just die right then and there. "Number Eight, explain yourself."

You choked, struggling to speak as you held back the tears that threatened to spill over your lashes. You knew you’d be punished if you couldn’t come up with a reasonable explanation, but you also knew crying in front of your father would just make it worse.

After a few moments of you failing to force out any cohesive syllables, Reginald turned his gaze towards your brother. Somehow, the thought that _he_ might be punished for this was scarier than the fear of whatever punishment you might have in store.

“Number Five, since your sister seems to insist on disobeying orders, I demand that you explain in her stead.”

“She had a nightmare, we didn’t want to bother you so late so—“

“So instead of allowing her to handle her own failings, you deliberately chose to break a very simple rule in order to coddle her?”

The room fell silent. You could tell from the way Five's jaw clenched that he wanted to argue, but he knew better than that. 

You spared a brief glance at your mother, her gaze seemed distant, as if she were looking straight through you. You sometimes wondered just how much she knew about everything that happened around the house. You wondered if at times like these she wanted to ask questions too. 

"I'm sorry." You croaked, once again drawing the attention of your entire family. You refused to meet anyone's eyes. "I won't do it again, I'm sorry."

Your father looked down at you, shaking with fear and barely awake enough to stand. For a brief moment, you almost thought he would just brush it all off, inform you all of whatever it was that you'd been woken up for, and never mention a word of what had happened. But that was only one, very brief moment.

"Groveling will get you nowhere Number Eight." Your father snapped.

You swallowed your apology instantly. If there was one thing Reginald seemed to hate even more than disobedience, it was desperation. It seemed to you that he’d sooner sprout wings than accept an apology he deemed inappropriate, or god forbid an “excuse”. 

Your knees threatened to give out underneath you. The fear of being punished mixed with the fear of slipping up, doing something wrong in a way that would drag Five down with you. 

_I didn’t mean to fall asleep._ You considered saying. You decided against it though. Even in the midst of panic, you knew that a statement like that would only hurt you in the long run. 

“You must be punished for this, Number Eight.” Said Reginald, stern and decisive as always. “You broke a very simple rule over a trivial moment of weakness, and even worse, you’ve roped Number Five into your failings, and delayed all your siblings in their tasks for the day. You must be taught the consequences of your actions!”

You nodded, blinking back the new waves of tears. At least he wasn’t blaming Five.

“Number Two, bring Number Eight to bedroom twenty-three.”

“The...the empty one?” Asked Diego, apprehension spread over his puzzled expression.

“Precisely. Number Eight, you will spend no less than seven days in bedroom twenty-three. One day for each sibling you’ve inconvenienced.”

Your stomach turned. He'd reminded you of your shameful dependence on others often enough for you to know exactly what he was doing. You did the best you could to remain calm and collected while you straightened your clothes, all rumpled and twisted from sleep. 

You forced yourself to steady your breathing as you crossed the room. With the exception of Five, all your siblings appeared just as curious and puzzled as Diego.

You kept your head down when you walked past your father, and you kept your head down when Diego tried (and failed) to subtly make eye contact with you in the hallway. You even kept your head down when you heard Five's voice picking up in the room behind you, no doubt arguing with your father about the punishment you were to be receiving while the rest of your siblings looked on in horror.

You didn't even realize Diego was taking the long way to bedroom twenty three until the two of you stopped in the kitchen. 

"A-are you okay?" He stuttered, concern painting his features.

“Are there cameras...I mean, can...can dad see us right now?”

Diego shook his head. He always was the best at finding blind spots.

You wrapped your arms around his stomach and muffled a sob in his shirt. Diego was still for a second, then awkwardly patted your back, keeping his other arm limply at his side. You let yourself break for a moment, letting the fear flood out of you in your tears. When you stepped back, you wiped your eyes and nose on your sleeve, and were oddly relieved to find that the smell of Five’s soap was stuck to your clothes.

“W-we should kee-keep going, or d-dad will get s-s-suspicious.”

You nodded and kept walking, letting Diego lead you to a beige-colored room with a bed, a mirror, and no windows. He closed the door behind you, and after a minute of him (presumably) guarding the door, you heard your father’s footsteps in the hall. 

The door locked, and both sets of footsteps faded out the way they’d come.

You laid down on the creaky bed in the center of the room and held your unsullied sleeve to your nose. You knew it would fade as the week went on, and you tried not to think about how you’d be when you were finally released.

But for now, if you closed your eyes, you could almost pretend Five was laying there with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aha! You were laboring under the misapprehension that this was fluff! Fuck you, it’s angst.


	12. Interrogation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Diego and Vanya aren’t any more pleased about this than Luther and Allison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Diego’s turn in the spotlight! While he may not be reigning king of the himbos, he sure is Pure Of Heart, Dumb Of Ass.

Diego heard it first, and he recognized it instantly. Screaming wasn’t exactly new to him, and as always, his first instinct was to grab the closest knife and speed towards the sound as fast as he could, hoping to intervene.

Three doors down from his room, Diego found you in Five’s bed, tangled in his sheets to the point it almost looked like a straightjacket. When he couldn’t see any threats, he sat next to you and led you to lean on his shoulder, while his other hand held a knife as a casual warning to anyone who might attack.

Vanya heard it second, and after a moment of consideration she followed the sound to her old confidant’s bedroom, surprised to see you instead. 

It was a strangely familiar sight, you with tears streaming down raw, reddened cheeks, holding your head in your hands as one of the others gave a lackluster attempt to calm you down. It made her hesitate, pausing just before she got to the doorframe. It scared her, how quickly things seemed to be falling back into place, almost like none of you had ever left. 

But you were her sister, and you were clearly upset, so she pushed down the fear and sat on your other side, gently shushing you in the tone of voice she’d heard her therapists use whenever she’d cried in their offices.

You raked your nails down your face, scratching at your already raw cheeks. Before you could do any real harm to yourself Diego had pulled your arms away from your face, pinning them to your sides. 

You struggled to breath properly, sobbing and gasping for air while you cried. You stopped trying to yank your arms out of Diego's hold and just sobbed, losing all your will to fight.

If Five wasn't here, what was the point in fighting? In doing anything at all? 

Vanya looked to Diego, wondering if he knew what set you off. She thought that even if he did, she probably didn't want to hear it. Come to think of it, while your meltdowns were typical, something she was familiar with, the setting of this one was a bit odd.

What were you doing in Five's bed? 

Vanya slid off the bed, leaving you to collapse and weep on Diego. It took exactly four seconds for Vanya to figure out what was going on. 

In one second she spotted your clothes (your shorts bunched up halfway under the bed, your bra hidden behind the open door).

Two seconds and she took a closer look at you (your hair tangled, your shoulders, and presumably the rest of you under that sheet, bare, the little purplish spots that littered your neck). 

Three seconds and she remembered how close you and Five had been as children (how she had wished and wished that she had what you had, whatever it was that drew Five's attention, his praise).

And on the fourth second, Five was standing in the doorway, looking at you like you were the most precious thing in the world, like he was ready to fight for your safety no matter the cost.

Your head shot up at the sound of his footsteps. You wrenched yourself out of Diego’s hold, taking advantage of his momentary shock, but before you could run to Five like it appeared you wanted to, your foot got caught on the corner of the sheet you were wrapped in, and you tumbled to the floor.

While Diego and Five were busy staring each other down, Vanya crouched down and helped you up. She didn’t miss how wobbly you were standing up, nor how exhausted you seemed when she sat you back down and you slumped on her shoulder. 

She reached over and awkwardly patted your arm. You looked like you were on the verge of breaking into _another_ round of tears, and honestly she just wasn’t prepared for that right now. So instead, she mumbled a soft “hey” to get your attention.

“If you’re scared, you need to be breathing deeper. I’ll show you, ok?”

You nodded slowly, and followed her instructions when she told you to breathe in deeper.

With the sound of you shakily breathing out, whatever spell was holding Diego and Five in place was broken. Diego scooted away from you, letting Five take his place on the bed. You leaned into Five’s hold, releasing Vanya’s arm. 

While you were distracted, Diego reached over you and tapped Vanya’s shoulder.

“Neat trick. Where’d you pick that up?”

“I learned it from a therapist.” Vanya shrugged. “I thought it might help.”

"I thought- I mean you were just _gone_ when I woke up and I-" You shuddered and rested your head on Five's shoulder, struggling to articulate your fear that he had left again.

"I know, I shouldn't have left you up here by yourself for so long." Strands of your hair were stuck to your face, glued down by sweat and tears. Five gently brushed them away, tucking them behind your ear.

"I'm okay now, I'm- I'm okay," you insisted, although you clearly weren't. You pulled yourself together as best as you could (which, you would admit, didn't really make much of a difference), adjusting the sheets twisted around your body.

Five held your face in his hands, looking at you like you held the answer to every question he could ever dream of asking. Finally the adrenaline rush was over and you could breathe again.

You sat up a little straighter (much to the displeasure of your aching muscles- you were sore pretty much everywhere and you had quiet a few things to blame for that) and let your forehead rest against Five's. Although you were sweaty and achy and tangled up in bedsheets, you could have stayed in that position forever, filled with love and relief and-

"Alright, what the _fuck_ is going on right now?" 

Ah right. Diego and Vanya were still there. And Five looked like he was just about ready to kill Diego for interrupting your tender moment.

“You know Diego, for someone so well-versed in things you hate, you’re getting close to oblivious territory.”

“Wait...hold on, are you two...together? Like, _together_ together?!”

Five raised his eyebrows in exasperation, and Vanya averted her gaze. Diego’s expression changed rapidly, looking like he was going through all five stages of grief at once, with a heaping helping of disgust along with it.

“What...the fuck guys?”

“Diego...” Said Vanya, though she trailed off before her uncomfortable tone could annoy anyone further.

“No, no, Vanya, you cannot be condoning this, c’mon!”

Vanya shrugged, and Five gave Diego a sardonic look, daring him to press the issue further. He directed his confusion at you next, after getting no support from the others.

“And you’re just ok with this?!” 

You nodded enthusiastically with no hesitations. It was kind of funny to you, that after a childhood spent getting treated like the damsel in distress by Diego, he was suddenly condemning Five doing the exact same thing, albeit to a much more intense degree. 

“Five, this isn’t ok.”

“What gives you the right to say that?”

“ _Please_ , guys can we not do this right now-" Vanya's attempt at keeping the peace was short lived.

"I think anybody with morals would have the right to say that _this,_ " he gestured vaguely at you and Five. "Is messed up."

“ _Morals,_ ” Five rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Because everyone in this house is so ethical and upstanding!"

"Okay, that's enough." You stated firmly. All the noise of everyone talking was giving you a monster of a headache. Unfortunately, you were ignored by your siblings in favor of more arguing. 

"She's your _sister_!" Diego said. "That's fucking weird, man!"

“Everything about this family is weird! Our mother is a robot, as you’re so keen on forgetting, and you’re a—“ Five gestured vaguely to Diego’s torso. “BDSM Batman ripoff! We’re already _way_ past weird!”

“We still shouldn’t be overlooking the fact that...that you two are...are doing incest!”

Tears welled up in your eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time since you’d come home. You held your head in your hands, with your fingers balled up around fistfuls of hair. The yelling, the hangover, and the residual stress and strain from you and Five’s earlier activities were making your head feel like it was being compressed in a vice.

“Please, _please_ just stop talking, you’re all giving me a headache!”

Five’s hand was on the small of your back instantly, out of sight of your other siblings. Even after being caught, it was second nature for the pair of you to hide what you were from the rest of your family. 

“Look what you did, Diego!”

“What _I_ did?!”

Five nearly snarled at him. You could tell his instincts were telling him to attack something, or someone.

“No, you know what, no. You need to leave, so me and Vanya can talk to her. _Alone_.”

Five was about to protest, but one glance at you and you nodded. As much as you hated it, you could understand why your siblings were so worried about you.

“Fine.” Said Five. “But if I come back and she’s hurt, or crying, or even slightly upset, I’ll take one of those knives of yours and weld it to your spine.”

“Fine.”

Five shoved his hands in his pockets, and grumbled his way out the door.

“Wait, where are you going?” Asked Vanya.

Five chuckled as he responded.

“To get a decent cup of coffee.”

"Well... Cat's outta the bag now, I guess." You said, too tired to even pretend to be upset. You tried to stand up from the bed but almost as soon as your feet hit the floor your knees gave out. Diego caught you, unsurprisingly, and sat you back down on Five's bed.

You didn't miss the pity in your siblings expressions as you wrapped a blanket around you overtop of the sheet. Your hadn't even noticed it but you were shaking. If you had to guess, you probably looked just as shitty and washed up as you felt.

"I know it's a longshot but do either of you have a cigarette? Vanya? No? Shit." You sighed and leaned back, slumping against the wall. Diego said your name in that god awful, unbearable "I'm-here-to-save-you" tone that he only ever used on missions and on you. You hated when he did that. God, how long had it been since you'd heard him do that?

"Don't you say it Diego. So help me God-"

"Were you and Klaus also-"

You and Diego spoke over each other, unintentionally answering his question.

"Jesus Christ." Diego muttered.

"What about Klaus?" Vanya asked, although she had a feeling she already knew. After Five disappeared you and Klaus got... _close._ And though she wouldn't admit it, she'd unintentionally witnessed a few things that now, looking back, seemed awfully compromising.

“Ok, quick recap. Little baby me and Five were together, Five disappeared, stuff happened, and then I was with Klaus. Now Five is back so...I guess, I’m with him now.”

“You don’t...you don’t have to be, y’know, if you like Klaus more, or something...” Vanya said, in the same tone she always used when she was trying to be comforting, but wasn’t really sure what to do.

“No.” You barked, harsher than you’d intended. “No, no, I want to stay with Five.”

“Right, sorry...” She mumbled.

“Are you sure?” Asked Diego.

You shot him a look. He held your head up with each of his palms on your cheeks, forcing your face into a position where he could hold eye contact.

“Are you sure, like absolutely, one hundred percent sure, that you’re ok with this?”

“Yes, Diego, for the last time, yes. Why is that so hard to believe?”

“Well...because...you’re so, y’know...”

“I’m so _what_?”

“...unstable?” Finished Diego, though he sounded much less sure than when he’d started his sentence. “I mean, with all the drugs, and the crying, and the breakdowns when we were kids and at the funeral, I’m just-“

You sighed. As much as you knew he was right on some level, you couldn’t help but be hurt. All those years and he still didn’t trust you.

“I’m just worried. I know we haven’t all been super close lately, but you’re still my sister. I gotta make sure you’re safe.”

The sentiment was sweet, it really was. You softened your gaze, and as upset as it had made you at first, it was nice that he still cared about you.

Even if Vanya looked like she was about to punch him.

"Thank you," you said, and for the most part you meant it. "But I'm a fucking adult Diego. I know I don't exactly have a track record of being the most well balanced individual but you know why that is? I didn't have _him_.”

Though you were speaking to Diego, you were watching your sister. You weren't sure if you'd ever seen her look mad before. 

"I'm just saying if you need help-"

"I don't." You interrupted.

"If you _did,_ " Diego continued. "I'd be there."

You didn't respond. You weren't quite sure what to say to that. Even if you needed help you doubted that Diego would be able to provide it. He just didn't know you the way Five did, or the way Klaus did for that matter.

After a few seconds of tense silence, Vanya stood up. 

“Listen, this whole mess is important and all, but I need to sleep, and you guys probably do too. I’ve got a violin lesson tomorrow and I really don’t want to be late. I’ll...I’ll see you later.”

You nodded at her, managing a small smile, one that she reciprocated. She didn’t close the door on her way out, but she pulled it in enough that you couldn’t see in or out.

Diego awkwardly put his arm over you and patted your shoulder twice. 

“Are you gonna be ok on your own?”

“Yeah.”

“...ok.”

He nodded, letting you collapse back into your place on Five’s bed. You curled up as he left the room, the click of the door and the sound of footsteps fading lulling you back to sleep.

You lost track of time, falling in and out of a dream now that the sun had fully disappeared over the horizon. 

The oh-so-familiar smell of Five still clung to his pillow, and the comfort it brought you let you drift off almost entirely. 

It almost masked the smell of blood when Five’s footsteps came back into the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Istanbul (Not Constantinople) plays quietly in the background with bass boost on]


End file.
